Chandigarh, Oct 3 (IANS) In a festive bonanza, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday announced a major project to repair and upgrade of 19,491.56-km rural link roads with an outlay of Rs 4,150.42 crore.  Addressing the gathering in Tarn Taran, the Chief Minister said, “Today is a historic day, especially for the rural areas of Punjab, as the repair and upgradation work of rural link roads is being initiated today”. Mann said the government has taken another historic decision, as now, along with repairing these link roads, their maintenance will also be ensured for the next five years by contractors.

The Chief Minister said there are a total of 30,237 link roads in Punjab with a total length of 64,878 km, adding 33,492 km are under the Punjab Mandi Board and 31,386 km are under the Public Works Department (PWD). He said the government is now starting a project to repair and upgrade 7,373 link roads with a total length of 19,491.56 km. The project will cost Rs 4,150.42 crore, which includes five years of maintenance. Mann added that Rs 3,424.67 crore will be spent for repair and upgradation, whereas Rs 725.75 crore will be spent for five-year maintenance.

The Chief Minister said the e-tendering process for the repair and upgradation of these roads has been completed, and the entire work will be done in a transparent and corruption-free manner. He said an artificial intelligence (AI) survey was conducted for these roads, which resulted in savings of Rs 383.53 crore.

Mann said that to ensure high quality during road repair and upgradation, for the first time, a ‘Road Infrastructure Development Meeting’ was conducted. The Chief Minister said that in this meeting, Mandi Board officials, contractors, and other stakeholders discussed key issues and all contractors and agencies were clearly instructed that no compromise should be made on quality in this link road project, and that proper maintenance must be ensured under all circumstances. He said that to ensure public safety during foggy or dark conditions, a special road safety project is being implemented on the repaired and upgraded link roads at a cost of Rs 91.83 crore.