Vijayawada: The state govt is planning to hand over the maintenance of major roads including state highways to private developers. The developers will take up regular repair works on payment of fixed amount. This mode will not require state govt to go for tenders frequently, which is the reason for periodical delay in discharging road maintenance works.
State govt has already decided to take up construction of several new roads under public private patnership (PPP) mode by allowing the successful bidder to make up costs through levy of toll fees on the commuters. Though the PPP mode may financially burden commuters and goods carriers, state govt is of the view that it is the only way to take up construction of new roads without spending funds from the state exchequer. It is said that due to its poor financial condition, govt is not in a position to spend huge for road construction despite demands from the public representatives.
AP govt has been spending around 3,000-4,000 crore for road construction maintenance annually, which was found inadequate to meet public demands. Construction of new roads requires around 2-4 crore per kilometre and road repair works cost 10-12 lakh for a kilometre. The condition of several major state highways, district roads and rural roads was bad by the time Chandrababu Naidu- led govt returned to power in the state.
The chief minister decided to act on his promise during the elections and give the damaged roads a complete makeover. He launched a major drive himself to make roads in the state pothole free. He released around 400 crore for the repair works. This apart, AP govt also gave green signal for the PPP to take up new road construction.
Meanwhile, the R&B department came up with the idea of giving long-term road maintenance contracts to private firms in order to avoid delays in taking road repairs. The department identified about 3,900 km long roads to hand them over to private developers. The state cabinet is likely to take the final call on the issue soon.
