SHILLONG: Meghalaya Cabinet on has approved the Meghalaya Road Maintenance Policy. Speaking to media persons after the cabinet meeting, Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma said that the policy had mechanism for effective monitoring and management of roads in the state.
Under the policy, roads which requires periodic maintenance and emergency maintenance would also be identified and it will facilitate better approach to monitoring of the road infrastructure in the state.
Chief Minister also said that the Government had invested a lot to create road infrastructure in the state with special focus on facilitating access to remote villages and the Government even had dedicated funds for construction of rural roads in the form of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) apart from funds under State plans.
On being asked how roads in the state can be constructed with PMGSY in which the state is still lacking behind, the Chief Minister said that the State Government has taken measures to compensate the delay as far as the projects under PMGSY was concerned.
Sangma while pointing out that many projects under PMGSY did not received even single bid from contractors, added that the PWD (Roads) had been asked to identify potential young contractors and groom them to become professional contractors.
“Though not great but it’s better than before and number of projects will be taken up under PMGSY ,” he said.
Asked if there is any clause in the policy which for taking action against contractors who failed to construct good quality roads, Sangma said that the policy had provision for having empowered committee for monitoring, evaluation and quality management of roads.