LUCKNOW: Failing to keep its promise of making the state roads pothole free by June 15, the Yogi Adityanath government is seeking time till October to accomplish the task which is a little over 60 per cent done.
The work on the roads is likely to restart only after the monsoon season is over.
Deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya, however, said the government mended nearly 63 per cent of the roads by June 15. According to sources, 1,21,034 km of roads in the state had to be made pothole free by June 15. The government was only able to complete 73,631 km.
An official survey found out that over 1 lakh km of the 2,25,825 km roads in the state were full of potholes.
The task was entrusted to a number of departments including PWD, Mandi Parishad, Panchayati Raj, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
According to sources, out of 85,160.63 km road in urban areas the PWD department could only mend 67,857.97 km.
Conveniently ignoring the CM’s orders, irrigation department did not even start working on the 9668 km entrusted to them. Similarly, Panchayati Raj department had to repair 3890 km but it could mend only 295.4 km till June 15.
Local municipal corporations had the task to make 6,455 km roads free from potholes but they could achieve only 17. 29 per cent of the target.
Mandi Parishad too failed to go beyond 20 per cent of the target by repairing just 2090 km of 10193 km.
On the other hand, central agencies’ performance was far better.
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna topped the tally by repairing 1624.91 km of its 1703 km target. However, official sources said the task might take up to two more months to be completed.
A senior official on the condition of anonymity said,“A new mining policy, e-tendering process and paucity of funds in various departments are a few reasons for the delay.”
Elaborating further he added that due to e-tendering, very few bids were made for the road mending.