CM okays more cement roads for Nagpur

Nagpur: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has sanctioned more cement roads for the city costing Rs 300 crore. The project will be executed as per the earlier formula — state, NMC and NIT to share the expenses equal of Rs 100 crore each. The urban development department has issued a notification in this regard which was received by the NMC and NIT a couple of days ago.
Expressing gratitude towards Fadnavis, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and guardian minister Chandrashekar Bawankule, mayor Pravin Datke said, “The CM had kept his words. He had approved cement roads worth Rs 300 crore in 2015-16. Now, same package has been okayed for 2016-17 and we are hopeful that he will sanction more cement roads worth Rs 300 crore every year in next three years. This will take the total expenditure on cement roads to Rs 1,500 crore during the BJP government’s five year regime.”
The state government is expected to release its share of Rs 100 crore in June. The NIT will also transfer its share of Rs 100 crore to the NMC when the bills are raised.
The NMC is set to name the project as phase-III. The civic body on its own had launched cement road project phase-I at an estimated cost of Rs 77.50 crore in 2010 that now has escalated to Rs 123 crore.
Fadnavis had approved Rs 300 crore project in 2015-16, phase II, and it too witnessed cost escalation. The estimated expenditure on phase-II now stands at Rs 324 crore.
Considering all projects, the city is set to get cement roads worth Rs 747 crore.
The NMC is converting tar roads with a length of 25.93km in phase-I. Length of 54.66km is proposed to be covered in phase-II. The exact length to be covered in phase-III will be known after the NMC finalizes the project report.
Interestingly, the NMC had planned to complete phase I in 2013, which is still incomplete. Similarly, the civic body is yet to execute works under phase-II, which was announced by the CM in December 2014 and now comes the phase-III. Of the total 18 packages in phase-II, the NMC has issued work orders for only seven packages as on date. Work on not a single package has commenced at the ground level.
If everything goes as per plan, tar roads with length of around 300km will be converted into cement road by 2019.