In a days to come, for the first time in Himachal, the Public Works Department will build roads using world-class technology called Geo Synthetic technology. It has got the approval of the state government. Now all the roads will be built using Geo Synthetic technology. May onwards the work on this project would start at face pace. On Monday, there was a discussion on the quality of roads and their longevity with the use of this technology.
The Public Works Department has prepared the draft for 1060 km of new roads in the state. The construction of these roads will start from next month. Along with this, the department is also going to start the work of making 2065 km of roads on a war footing. On Monday, several meetings were held simultaneously in the Secretariat under the leadership of the Chief Minister of the department. These meetings have been organized to implement the decisions taken in the budget. In these, all those decisions were brainstormed, which have been included in the budget by the state government.
The Himachal government has made a provision of Rs 4,373 crore in the budget for the Public Works Department. With this money, 1060 km of new motorable roads, 2065 km of paved roads, 990 km of drains, 75 bridges will be constructed at different places across the state, 80 villages of 20 panchayats and 22 abadis will be covered. A target has been set to connect with it, while the maintenance of 2200 km of roads is also included.
After completion of the work, the length of motorable roads will increase to 40,000 kms, while the length of paved roads will increase to 34,000 kms. Along with this, the draft of the third phase of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana has also been discussed in the meeting. The second phase of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana will end in September this year, while the central government is churning for the third phase. Ajay Gupta, Chief Engineer, PWD said that PWD would soon start the work of implementing the budget announcements. The decisions which were related to the department during the budget have been brainstormed. Now the work of construction, maintenance and improvement of roads will be started.
The Public Works Department will no longer spend money on the purchase of large machinery in snow-affected areas, but such products will be procured, using which the snow can be easily melted. For this, the department will use calcium chloride brine in the coming days. Using this the snow will easily melt and the road will be restored in no time.