“In future no further work under PMGSY will be assigned to any central agency in Bihar, except the works already assigned,” Ramesh told The Indian Express after a meeting with Bhim Singh, Minister for Rural Works Department in Bihar, in the capital on Wednesday.
The meeting came in the wake of Ramesh’s meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna last week where the latter highlighted the state’s objections against the Centre over PMGSY. Nitish has long been objecting to central agencies’ involvement in implementing PMGSY in the state.
Going a step further, Ramesh has decided to hand over 354 rural road projects already assigned to three central agencies — NBCC, NHPC, and NPCC — to state agencies right away. Unawarded projects assigned to these agencies is estimated to cost about Rs 850 crore to provide rural roads of over 1,800 km.
“The roads which have already been assigned to central agencies but not been awarded to contractors yet for taking up work will also be handed to over to state government,” Ramesh said, pointing to projects with NBCC, NHPC and NPCC.
However, about 700 km total length of 100 rural roads projects assigned to the two other central agencies, CPWD and IRCON, will not be assigned to Bihar government as these agencies have indicated they had completed the process of awarding the work and any change would delay the work.
Ramesh’s announcement is likely to remove one of the major irritants between the Centre and the Bihar government in terms of the implementation of UPA’s flagship Bharat Nirman scheme in the state.
Working on this new model of keeping central agencies out of Bihar, Ramesh indicated that the Rural Development Ministry may approve 2,177 km of roads in seven Naxal-affected districts in the state under PMGSY by middle of September. This will be implemented by state agencies.
This marks another favourable decision for Bihar given that Nitish has been complaining that state did not receive sanction of new rural roads under PMGSY since UPA-II came to power in 2009. The Rural Development Ministry has not been sanctioning fresh roads to Bihar since 2009, citing discrepancies in the Core Network finalised by the state government.
In fact, Ramesh has decided to hear Bihar’s position on the Core Network afresh. He has given the state a fortnight’s time to allay the objections of the Ministry.
“It is a good beginning. For the first time we felt that the (central) government is positively looking at the issues raised by us. We will respond to certain queries related to Core Network in next 15 days to take it to the logical conclusion,” Bhim Singh said after his meeting with Ramesh.