Burdwan-Durgapur MP Kirti Azad Jha held a high-level meeting with the top officials of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at Durgapur regarding the slow progress of the expansion work of the national highways 19 and other issues.
The TMC MP has urged the officials of National Highways Authority of India to repair and maintain the service roads properly.
With a long monsoon period ahead, already the service roads of national highways in Asansol and Durgapur are in dilapidated states and incident of accidents have gone up. Local people have agitated on this issue.
Kirti Azad wanted to know the reasons behind the present conditions of the service roads and the delay in finishing the six-lane expansion works.
“I have jotted down in my diary what the NHAI officials have told to me in the meeting. They have said that despite the approval of the designing in some spots local people are creating difficulties. I have advised them to speed up the highways expansion project work and construction of flyovers in the stretch. Also urged them to maintain the service and approach roads,” said Mr Azad.
The project director of NHAI in Durgapur, Manish Kumar has informed that out of total 67 kilometres of highways, already construction work for 54 kilometres have already been completed. Due to objections from local people, construction work on 13 kilometres of the stretch cannot be completed. The NHAI officials have provided all updates and information to the Durgapur-Burdwan MP.
The NHAI, which is under the central government, has planned for six expansion of this stretch, under its much-hyped Bharatmala project. It will further improve the road communications between New Delhi and Kolkata.