New stretches of rural roads are rapidly coming up in Chhattisgarh with massive funding support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), officials stated. The ADB has provided lending support to Chhattisgarh for projects undertaken under Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The ADB had been helping to either construct or upgrade 31,000 kms of rural roads in the States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradsh, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam. Notably, the Chhattisgarh Government has already started taking steps to even settle the forest land disputes under the Forest Protection Act 1980 as early as possible for accelerating the process of laying of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) (Prime Minister's Rural Roads Project), officials stated. A time-bound action plan has been chalked out for various departments to settle the issues relating to forest land expeditiously, officials stated. Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand in a review meeting held at the Mantralaya on March 4 for taking stock on the status of the rural road projects underway in the State. Dhand in a circular issued directed that all the road works should be completed in a time-bound manner. The Chief Secretary said that the land area should be inspected by the Forest Department officer on the next day itself. The District Collector should be informed if there is any delay. The concerned Collector should settle the issue in within 10 days. The time-frame has been fixed as per the hectares of forest land. The officers of Panchayat and Rural Development Department in a State-level Standing Committee of Panchayat and Rural Development Department chaired by the Chief Secretary in December last year had taken stock of the status of roads and structures being constructed under PMGSY. It was informed in the meeting that 5124 permanent roads have been constructed in Phase 1 to 8 of the scheme. The total length of these roads is 22750 km. These include roads constructed in Phase 1 to 8 of the scheme besides roads constructed in different phases of Rural Road Connectivity Programme of the Asian Development Bank. The construction of these roads has facilitated people of 7610 rural settlements for commuting in these all weather roads, it was informed. In the meeting it was also informed that construction of 337 roads was completed at a cost of `715 crore under PMGSY in the financial year 2013-14. The length of these roads is 1292 km and their construction has linked 969 settlements. As many as 37 roads have been sanctioned under the advance technology of PMGSY. Among these, construction of four roads has been completed while construction of 10 roads is under progress. The process of tender agreement is completed for five roads while tenders for 18 roads are under process. In the meeting, the officers informed that proposals for construction of 294 roads worth `1023.51 crore and construction of 103 bridges worth `1318 crore was been sent to the Central government for financial year 2014-15. The Central government has approved a revised cost of `3045 crore under its Road Requirement Plan (RRP) for improvement of road connectivity in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas of Chhattisgarh. Overall, the Centre has approved a Road Requirement Plan (RRP) for improvement of road connectivity in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas of a total of 34 Districts in 8 States covering 5477 km length (1126 km NHs & 4351 km State Roads. In Chhattisgarh, the fund had been approved for improvement of road connectivity in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas measuring 2019 kms . As per details of Physical Progress achieved as on March 1, 2015 under RRP the length of road completed between 2010-11 to 2014-15 in the insurgency infested areas in Chhattisgarh upto February 28,2015 is 868 kms. As per the State-wise details of fund allocated and expenditure incurred under LWE scheme, Chhattisgarh an expenditure of Rs 190 crore was made from 2010-11 to 2014-15 upto February 28, 2015. This information was given by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Planning, Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. Notably, last year, the Central government had simplified the procedure for offering general approval under Section-2 of Central Forest Conservation Act 1980, keeping in view the need of infrastructural development for public utility. This implied that general approval for construction of roads on forest land in a total of ten Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts of Chhattisgarh will now be granted easily, officials informed here. As per the simplified procedure, the general approval for construction of two-lane highways on forest land will be given by State Government itself. In this context, Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand had issued a circular to Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of all the departments and also to the Divisional Commissioners and District Collectors. According to the officials, simplification of clearance procedure will largely benefit the areas of 10 LWE affected districts of the State, by expediting construction of roads in Chhattisgarh and connecting it to mainstream development. The 10 LWE affected districts include Bastar (Jagdalpur), Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Narayanpur, Jashpur, Kabeerdham (Kawardha), Rajnandgaon, Koriya and Surguja. This simplified procedure will also be applicable in the new districts, which have been formed by reorganising the aforementioned old districts. It is noteworthy that Chief Minister Raman Singh, in his meeting with Union Minister of State for Forest and Environment Prakash Javdekar in New Delhi on June 10, 2014, had made the Centre aware of the complications arising in procedure of forest and environment clearances, officials stated. In the circular, the Chief Secretary has directed all the Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners and District Collectors that with effect of the rules relaxed by the Central Government, implementation of two-lane highway projects of Integrated Action Plan (IAP) and other schemes in aforementioned districts should be expedited. Moreover, on January 13 this year, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari announced on Tuesday that construction of roads and bridges in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas would be carried out on mission mode with precast and other advance technologies with assistance from Military Engineering Services (MES) and DRDO. “The road projects will be carried out through `mission mode’ in coordination with the insurgency-hit States’’ Gadkari had told mediapersons here at a crowded press conference after holding a review meeting with the Chief Ministers and Ministers of eight Naxal-hit States in Naya Raipur. He said that local contractors would also be engaged for construction of roads and other development works in violence-hit pockets. Gadkari had reviewed the progress of road infrastructure works in insurgency-hit eight states and heaped praise on security forces and construction agencies for executing the key road projects in red zones despite all odds. He stressed upon the need to involve the local tribal youth in development works and appreciated the efforts of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh for doing excellent work in creating infrastructure in Naxal areas.