419 km roads to be built

Zila Parishad Chairman and MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali announces Rs 200-crore project that will benefit rural areas of the district

Zila Parishad Chairman and MLA Dakha Manpreet Singh Ayali announced here on Thursday that roads measuring 419 km and costing Rs 200 crore will be built in the rural areas of the district to help resolve traffic issues, broaden old roads and construct new ones. The grant for this ambitious project, which Ayali announced at a meeting with the officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) and Punjab Mandi Board (PMB), is to come from the Prime Minister's Gram Sarak Yojna and the World Bank.

The first time MLA lashed out at the Centre "for step-motherly treatment towards Punjab. Our state pays a huge amount to the Centre each year in the form of taxes but in return it gets peanuts. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the state gets its due from the Centre despite its apathy towards us."

However, Ayali did mention that during his recent visit to Punjab, Union Minister For Rural Development Jai Ram Ramesh had promised that the state would get a grant to construct roads measuring 2,000 km in the rural areas.

Meanwhile, in accordance with the plan issued today, Ayali said that the work on 62 km of roads falling under the PWD department and funded by the World Bank will begin in the coming two months. The MLA assured that the tenders for this will be issued in the next 15 days.

Work on the remaining 184 km of roads, which is to be built by the Punjab Mandi Board, and another 164 km, which again to be made by the Public Works Department, will start in the next five months.

"The main aim is to broaden existing roads, construct fly-overs to decongest traffic and build new roads, keeping in mind that the traffic and vehicular density in rural areas has also increased. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked Public Works Department Minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon to ensure that work in rural areas is also completed on time and that the roads in these areas get a facelift," added Ayali.

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