Bhubaneswar: Minister Rural Development Priti Ranjan Gharei has said that the Annual Budget provision for the Department of Rural Development has been enhanced to Rs.7500.00 crore, which is a hike of 35.57% over the budget of 2019-20.
Addressing a Media Meet in presence of Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh and Director Arvind Agarwal Minister said that till date, the Department of Rural Development (DoRD) has already constructed 1254 bridges under BSY and another 900 bridges are in different stages of execution.
During 2023-24, it is programmed to construct 526 new bridges with an outlay of Rs.1900 Crore. In order to recharge ground water and instream storage of flowing water, the DoRD envisages constructing 100 Bridge-cum-weir projects with an outlay of Rs.50.00 crore. Till date, 32 instream structure have been completed.
Similarly, under road sector, 6000 Kilometer(KM) of roads has been planned to construct with a budget provision of Rs.2061.00 Crore under the flagship scheme MMSY, MMSY-Improvement of existing RD roads, MMSY-Transferred Roads Improvement Program (TRIP), MMSY Connection of Missing Road Links (CMRL), MMSY-Connection of Unconnected Villages in Difficult Areas (CUVDA), which shall definitely improve rural road network, which includes up gradation and widening of rural roads to ODR standard.
Till date, the DoRD has already constructed 10,621 KM of roads under MMSY. The major thrust is given to construct 200 KM in difficult LWE affected areas, Swabhiman Anchal of Malkangiri District and other missing links.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary, Rural Development said that State Government is giving emphasis on maintenance of rural roads for which a budget provision of Rs.1158.79 crore has been made to ensure pothole free and improve riding quality of 50,000 KM of roads during 2023- 24, which is significant increase of about 25000 KM of roads than previous year.
Apart from that, the State Government is committed to provide all-weather connectivity by constructing 15,000 KM of rural roads under MMSY with an investment of over Rs.12,000 crore and 1500 new bridges with an approximate investment of over Rs.6000 crore under Biju Setu Yojana in the next 5 years.
