KOLKATA: Ahead of the panchayat election in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will kick-start major state-wide projects for new roads and doubling of existing ones.
“In order to strengthen the rural road infrastructure in the state, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will on February 12 at Nadia flag off the construction of 8700 km of rural road projects spread across the state,” said Pradip Kr Mazumdar, the agriculture advisor to the chief minister.
“Out the 8700 kms of roads approximately 75 per cent will be new grameen (village) roads while the rest is modernisation like double laning of roads. The state government has already built 23,000 km of rural roads,” he told PTI.
Road infrastructure is crucial for rural development as it offers connectivity allowing greater economic activites, he said.
The entire funding for rural roads was recovered from the Centre but under the revised terms, the Centre has reduced its contribution to 60 per cent of the cost.
West Bengal Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee had recently said West Bengal government was planning to construct 13,000 kilometre of rural roads in the state at an outgo of Rs 7800 crore.
West Bengal would require to spend Rs 3,100 crore as state’s share.
The Mamata Banerjee government would also provide Rs 2,700 crore to widen and renovate 3,000 km of rural roads.
Source: Press Trust of India