The State’s Tourism, Public Works and Irrigation minister Satpal Maharaj informed that work is underway on a war footing to repair potholes on the roads across the State. He said that a total of 659 roads in the State were damaged with potholes after winter in the financial year 2022-23. The Public Works Department had set a target of doing patchwork on 3,086 kilometres of the 659 roads out of which the work was done on 911 kilometres by February this year and the repair work on the remaining 2,175 kilometres is to be done by the end of March. The minister said that this is a constant process. Maharaj said this while replying to questions asked by members on the second day of the budget session in the Assembly at Bharadisain on Tuesday.
He informed that in the financial year 2022-23, out of 903 damaged highways under the PWD 244 had been repaired while 92 out of 421 major district roads, 78 out of 275 other district roads and 426 out of 1,344 rural roads had been repaired of potholes after winter. Contracts have been made and work is underway on a war footing to completing the remaining tasks, he said.
Replying to a question related to tourism, the minister said that under the Tehri mega tourism circuit scheme with the help of the Ministry of Tourism, a barge costing Rs 2.30 crore has been purchased to encourage tourism on the Tehri dam reservoir. In case there is a problem related to access route in any village in the reservoir affected area, facilitation of the route or barge will be done only through the THDC India Limited and the Rehabilitation department.
