Lok Satta demands Rs.1000 crore For road repairs

The Lok Satta Party today demanded that the Government undertake road repair works on a war footing by allocating at least Rs.1000 crore immediately.

Addressing a media conference, party spokesperson Katari Srinivasa Rao and Yuva Satta State Vice-President P.Sivaji said that State highways and major district roads to a length of at least 12000 km of the total 42511 km are extensively damaged and of them roads to a length of 5000 km-6000 km are unfit for travel.

While road restoration works alone will cost Rs.3000 crore, the State Government has allocated only Rs.750 crore to the Roads and Buildings Department during 2010-11.

The crater-filled roads are backing the breaks of passengers, damaging vehicles, and resulting in frequent traffic jams and fuel wastage, Lok Satta leaders said. More than two crore people in the State travel by road in some 78 lakh vehicles to a distance of 25 crore km every day.

They pointed out that the Government has not been strictly enforcing conditions under which contractors who build roads like those between Kurnool and Kadapa, and Eluru and Rajamundry have to undertake their maintenance too.

The State Government, the Lok Satta leaders said, is guilty of even diverting grants under Central Road Funds for building new roads instead of maintaining roads linking rural and urban areas.

Roads are getting damaged in the wake of heavy rains this year because quality standards are not maintained when they are initially laid. The meager funds allocated for repairs are squandered away on patchworks.