Make roads pothole-free by Sankranti, orders minister

Vijayawada: Minister for roads and buildings B C Janardhan Reddy instructed the officials of R&B department to expedite road repairs in order to make them pothole-free by Sankranthi.

He was addressing the officials through video conference from the office of engineer-in-chief here on Monday.

The minister told them that since they have only one month time to meet the target, they should expedite the work and make necessary plans to complete works. He enquired about the day-today progress report the officials received from various divisions on road repairs. Out of 45,378km roads across the state, 22,299km roads were damaged. Already, 2,468km roads were made pothole-free at a cost of Rs 861 crore.

The minister said that Chief Minister is also conducting weekly review meetings on the progress of road repairs and the officials should take more proactive role to meet the targets.

He expressed angfer at the officials of some divisions for lagging behind in repairing roads. He warned them of stern action if they did not complete the work on time. The officials informed the minister that there was a delay in execution of work due to the heavy rains in south coast and Rayalaseema regions.

Janardhan Reddy directed them to fix weekly targets and complete them. He also instructed the officials to solve the petitions received from people on the repairs to roads. Anyway, he cautioned the officials not to compromise on the quality of works.

Engineer in chief Nayeemullah and others officials participated.