YSRCP Government Wrecked Roads In Its Rule: Chandrababu Naidu

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu today reviewed the condition of roads in the State, and expressed anguish.

Speaking at a review meeting on the R&B department at the Secretariat, the CM said that the previous YSRCP government did not pay any attention to the conditions of the roads, and that motorists and even pedestrians went through hell for five years due to that. He said that the work to remedy the situation needed to start immediately, and asked officials to initiate the process of repairing all damaged roads expeditiously.

During the review, the officials briefed the CM on the state of the roads, the need for funds and the issues involved. The officials told the CM that not even the minimum amount of money had been spent on repairing the roads in the past five years. They also said that the dues were not paid to the contractors, and that as a result the contractors were also not coming forward to do the work today.

The officials explained that potholes existed on 4,151 km of roads in the State, and that another 2,936 km of roads needed to be repaired immediately. They explained that there was thus an urgent need to take up work on a total of 7,087 km of the State, and that a minimum of Rs 300 crore was required for this purpose.

The CM instructed the officials to start the work of filling up the potholes immediately. He also asked them to pay attention first to those roads that needed to be repaired urgently, and that tenders should be immediately called and urgent works taken up.

Discussions with experts on using new and improved technology in the repair and construction of roads were also held in the review. Professors from IIT Tirupati and SRM University, government officials and construction experts participated in the review. During the meeting, the CM was apprised of the details of the investigations carried out for the construction of roads at low cost and durability. The benefits of constructing roads using a variety of materials rather than the traditional method were also discussed.

R&B Minister B C Janardhan Reddy, officials of the department, and construction experts participated in the review meeting.