Bihar govt to take penal action against contractors failing to maintain rural roads built by them

Patna, Sep 11 (PTI) Bihar Chief Secretary Amrit Lal Meena on Wednesday directed officials of the Rural Works Department (RWD) to ensure that penal action be taken against contractors who fail to maintain roads constructed by them.
    The chief secretary asked RWD officials to immediately start a drive to inspect all 65,000 km of rural roads in the state and find out which stretches are not being maintained by the contractors concerned.
    The RWD has a provision of defects liability period, wherein the contractor is obligated to carry out maintenance of the rural road constructed by him for the first five years and also rectify any deficiencies noticed during this period.
    According to a statement issued by the Information and Public Relations department (IPRD), "The chief secretary on Wednesday chaired a review meeting, attended by Dipak Kumar Singh, Additional Chief Secretary (RWD) and other senior officials, on the maintenance and construction of rural roads in the state. The CS directed officials of the RWD that penal action must be ensured against those contractors who fail to maintain rural roads constructed by them."
    The chief secretary said that the inspection of the rural roads must be completed within 15 days.
    "If officials find glaring violations in the defects liability period on the part of contractors, process must be initiated to debar the concerned contractor," the statement said.
    Meanwhile, Bihar RWD Minister Ashok Chaudhary said that the department has decided to construct 26,000 km of new rural roads and 1,000 new small bridges in the rural areas of the state.
    "Around 26,000 km of new roads and 1,000 new small bridges will be constructed in the rural areas of the state under the Mukhyamantri Gramin Sadak Unnayan Yojana and Mukhyamantri Gramin Setu Nirman Yojana before the 2025 assembly polls in the state," he told reporters.
    The minister said that the RWD is finalising a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the construction of new small bridges in rural areas.
    "From now on, no small bridges will be constructed without the plan or budgetary approval of its approach roads," he said.
    The decision has been taken in view of certain incidents where small bridges were constructed without any approach roads or road connectivity.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)