Senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today produced purported documents in support of his charge that state Road Construction Department has put spanner in the construction of 85 Road Over Bridges (ROBs).
Modi, the former Deputy Chief Minister, had on last Tuesday charged that Road Construction Department's (RCD) Adviser and former IAS officer Sudhir Kumar has put a rider that the state government would not allow sanction of fund on cost sharing basis, if six ROBs, falling in Saran and Vaishali districts, are not sanctioned by Railways.
"In reply to my charge, the RCD minister and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has mocked me and sought documentary proofs in this regard...I have annexed the photo copies of letters written by Railways to Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary of RCD, Bihar, which substantiate my charge," Modi said.
The Railways wrote a letter to Chief Secretary on September 15, 2016 while another letter was written to RCD's Secretary on September 23, 2016 in which it said that "It is insisting that the state government will not coordinate on any issue with the railway till 6 ROBs are sanctioned...."
On the issue of delay in construction of ROBs, Modi said the state government gave its consent for construction of 53 ROBs on state highways and Major District Roads (MDRs) on cost-sharing basis as per which IRCON, railway's agency, will construct both bridge and approach road of ROB while the state government would share 50 per cent of the cost.
But the Railways approved 39 out of 53 such proposals including those six ROBs which have to be built in Vaishali and Saran, the Parliamentary constituency of former Railway minister Lalu Prasad, on the ground that there is not much vehicular movement on those level crossings.
Alleging that Sudhir Kumar is misleadng the Deputy CM who is yet to understand functioning and nuances of the department, Modi sought CM Nitish Kumar's intervention into the matter in the interest of the state and also for paving the way for construction of 85 ROBs.
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