Rural link roads in bad shape for want of funds

Ruchika M Khanna

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Chandigarh, May 1

Rural link roads in most parts of the state are in a shambles, thanks to the non-release of the Rural Development Fund (RDF) by the Centre, which is used for repair and maintenance of roads.

Nearly 6,000 km of rural link roads are dotted with potholes. Harassed commuters in rural areas are pleading with the government to at least start patchwork on these roads, but for want of funds, the government claims it cannot start with the repairs.

The Centre has reportedly held back Rs 3,200 crore as the RDF. The state government has no funds at its disposal to start the repair of these link roads. The Punjab Mandi Board revealed that nearly 13,000 km of roads in Punjab need immediate repairs. The total length of link roads in the state is 64,878 km.

The Punjab Mandi Board has recently mapped the link roads using the GIS technology. This helped the state realise that against 64,878 km of roads, only 64,294 km actually exist in the state. This revelation has put a question mark over the misuse of funds in building, maintaining and repair of nearly 600 km of roads that do not exist.

The maintenance cycle of link roads in Punjab is six years. As per this cycle, 12,825 km of roads required repairs by March 31 this year. Available data shows that while 4,495 km of roads required urgent repairs by March 2022, 8,330 km of roads required urgent repairs by March 2023. It is estimated that the repair of these roads would cost Rs 1,964 crore.

These roads are located in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Muktsar, Pathankot, Kapurthala, Bathinda, Tarn Taran and Sangrur.

Though the Punjab Mandi Board has other sources of income, in 2018-19, the board had raised a loan of Rs 4,650 crore from four banks by pledging the future income of the RDF. Nearly, Rs 4,000 crore of this loan was used by the Amarinder government for the loan waiver of farmers and the remaining Rs 650 crore was spent on the repair of link roads.

Minister blames Centre

• Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said the Centre had deliberately stopped funds required for road repairs
• He said pressure would be mounted on it to get the funds released after the Jalandhar byelection