Sir

Road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav on Wednesday issued orders to repair all potholes in the city before Durga Puja.

Under the output and performance based road assets maintenance contract (OPRMC) the roads will be repaired. A total of 9,064 km of roads come under the OPRMC, for which the state government has approved Rs 2579.1738 Crore for five years.

The minister said that strict action would be taken against contractors who fail to repair the potholes before the festive season. October 5 is the fixed deadline to repair all the roads.

Due to the durga pooja festival, a large number of people from other cities also come to Patna to see the pandals and idols, it is our duty to repair all those places were potholes have been created in the rainy season,” Nand Kishore said as per the local newspaper.

The stretch in front of Rabindra Bhavan, the R-Block road, the Meethapur road, the Kankarbagh road, the road under Chiraiyatand bridge, the Gosai Tola-Patliputra road, parts of Bailey Road,Station road, Rajapur Pul road which connects with Gandhi Maidan, the Asiana-Digha road, east and west Lohanipur road, and Punai Chowk Road. There are also many roads in the interiors of the city in bad shape.

Nand Kishore stressed that the Dushehra  deadline for road repairs is non-negotiable. The government may claim that they repair round the year but it is only visible during the festive season.

Why this action comes during festival season? Why this problems are not fixed on the day when it is found? Still it is the big question arises for the government.

If we talk about the data information shared by various state government with Supreme Court appointed panel on road safety, Bihar has registered an increase of 378 road deaths in January-September this year as compared to the same period last year. Altogether 3,733 people had died due to the road accidents between January-September in 2016, which increased to 4,111 in the same period this year.

Bihar has witnessed maximum increase in road deaths despite a decline of 5,000 fatalities in the country, which translates into 4.4% fall during three quarters of 2017 in comparison to the same period last year.

For improving this data, Bihar government should come forward with some strictness for recovering road potholes not only in festive season but also in regular days.

We hope the promises of road construction given by our road minister be fulfilled as per his given deadline.

Sourav ks

Intern

  Bihar, Bihar State Road Development Corporation, development