Roads & Buildings Minister Minister BC Janardhan Reddy said on Thursday that highways in the state were being repaired this year with a cost of Rs 2500 crores. He held a review meeting with senior officials of the R&B department at the ENC office in Vijayawada. He instructed the Chief Engineer-level officers to monitor the condition of roads on the ground. The minister called for selecting the completely damaged/damaged roads in 3 groups in order of priority. He also suggested that the 650 km works which were earlier cancelled under New Development Bank(NDB) and Central Road and Infrastructure Fund(CRIF) should be developed on top priority.

Speaking on this occasion, minister Janardhan Reddy mentioned that soon a meeting with NDB contractors would be conducted so as to complete the pending works at the earliest. The minister remarked that through speedy payment of bills to contractors, they would show interest in taking up the remaining pending tasks. He also suggested exploring the possibilities of surveying the condition of roads in the state through drones. He said that development works will be taken up on priority basis for the completely destroyed bridges.

He directed the officials that Eco Pix roads with steel slag should be constructed on an experimental basis in some areas and for developing on PPP basis, roads where Detailed Project Report(DPR) was prepared and no viability gap funding and land acquisition was required. Another important area identified was speedy filling up of vacant AE/AEE posts through engineering assistants.