Gadkari Calls Meeting of CMs of 8 Naxal-hit States

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has convened a Chief Ministers’ conference of eight naxal-hit states on Tuesday to resolve the bottlenecks in constriction of road networks in worst-affected districts.

The conference, to be held in Raipur is likely to be attended by the CMs of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, while Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh will be represented by the PWD ministers.

According to ministry officials, the conference would also be attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, State PWD, CRPF, BSF and other departments concerned.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had taken up improvement of road connectivity in the 34 worst naxal-affected districts, covering a total length of 5,477 km.

The project’s Road Requirement Plan (RRP) covers all the eight states participating in the meeting.

Out of 5,469 km length sanctioned, works for 4,908 km length were awarded.

So far, 3,299 km length has been completed incurring an expenditure of Rs 4,374 crore under this plan.

The proposal was first mooted in 2012 and it was expected to be completed by March 2015.

However, since 2012, regular meetings were conducted with the state governments and security forces to resolve the impediments in the implementation of the projects in Naxal-affected areas.

The government had identified 620 km for undivided Andhra Pradesh, 675 km length for Bihar, maximum 2,092 km of road network in Chhattisgarh, 752 km in Jharkhand, 237 km in Madhya Pradesh, 420 km in Maharashtra, 614 km in Odisha and 67 km of road construction in Uttar Pradesh.