HASSAN: The Hassan Zilla Panchayat (ZP), which has sent a proposal to the Union Ministry of Rural Development to take up work on building 584 km of roads in rural parts of the district two months ago under the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), will be sending an additional proposal for laying 61 km of roads in Channarayapatna and Hassan division, panchayat's Chief Executive Officer F.R. Jamadar has said.

Mr. Jamadar told presspersons that every village with a population of at least 2,500 would be linked by road. Minister of Public Works and Energy H.D. Revanna met Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad during his recent visit to New Delhi and exhorted him on the urgent need to approve the proposals, Mr. Jamadar said.

Asphalting

With the approval of the initial proposal for building village roads of 65 km in Alur, 34.50 km in Arkalgud, 77.50 km in Belur, 135 km in Hassan, 30 km in Sakleshpur, 98 km in Channarayapatna, 119 km in Arsikere and 25 km in Holenarsipur taluks would be asphalted and similarly additional stretch of 17 km and 44 km of roads would be asphalted in Channarayapatna and Hassan division respectively in the second phase, he said.

The Union Ministry of Rural Development was expected to approve a Rs. 50-crore proposal sent a few months ago for providing drinking water supply from the Yagachi river to the drought-prone Arsikere taluk, he said.

Delay

Meanwhile, the slow pace of work on building four-lane road between dairy circle and the taluk offices in Hassan had attracted criticism.

Fed up with the traffic problem, the people were pressuring the Public Works Department to expedite the work. Sources in the department attributed the delay to rain and digging of road for laying cables.

A senior official told The Hindu that pace of the work would pick up once the rains stop.

The work on demolishing the building from N.R. Cirlce to Tannerhalla had been started and Rs. 5.29 crore compensation had been paid to the landlords.

The demolition was stopped at the request of the shop owners who wanted to shift, he added.

On the bad condition of Hassan-Holenarsipur road, he said that there were technical problems and water had crept into the inner layers near Channapatnakere tank.

Efforts were on to correct the problem, he said.

The Hassan division of the Public Works Department was managing 2,523 km of major district roads, 1,032 km of State highways and with the 10-fold increase in the works, the officials faced a problem in implementing the works because of manpower shortage, he said.

Telephones

About the disconnection of telephones of various Public Works Department offices, he said efforts were on to get funds to pay bills to the tune of Rs. 1.28 lakh and the telephone lines would be restored shortly.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail