DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Wednesday gave nod to launch a special campaign for constructing 20,000 km of link roads at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore.

Chairing a meeting here, the Chief Minister said the objective of the campaign is to facilitate the people, as the link roads act as a catalyst in commuting and smooth transportation of goods and services.

He said the link roads are the arteries of economic growth in the state as they help the people residing in rural areas to commute on one hand and give impetus to trade and business on the other.

Mann underlined the need for the construction of these roads at the earliest, as a majority of them have remained unattended even after passing their life of six years.

The Chief Minister said these roads must be constructed by categorising them as top priority, priority, and needy roads so that people can benefit from them.

He asked the PWD and Mandi Board authorities to ensure that every single penny is spent judiciously on the construction of these roads, adding that it should be ensured that the contractors constructing these roads will have to maintain them for five years.

The Chief Minister said the government has decided to give a major facelift to the link road infrastructure by widening, strengthening, and upgrading these rural link roads. He asked the Punjab Mandi Board and the PWD to ensure high quality of the work, besides ensuring that every penny allocated for that project was invested in a justified manner.

The Chief Minister said the technology of artificial intelligence should be used for the need-based construction of the rural roads. He said this step will ensure optimum use of the existing resources, along with ensuring top-quality work on rural roads.

Bhagwant Singh Mann said that this technique will revolutionise the construction work on roads by saving a lot of public money adding he said that feasibility of third party check should also be explored.

On the occasion Cabinet Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, Chief Secretary KAP Sinha, Principal Secretary to CM Dr Ravi Bhagat and others were also present.

(editor@dailyworld.in)