Road construction under PMGSY being monitored
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 07 2024: Road construction works being taken up under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) are being monitored for maintaining quality, said Rural Development Minister Yumnam Khemchand during the Assembly session today.

The Minister said this in response to a policy cut motion raised by Congress MLA Th Lokeshwar during the discussion for a demand of Rs 4110,89,93,000 for Community and Rural Development.

The works under the PMGSY are monitored using a 3-tier quality control and monitoring mechanism, he said.

Firstly the works are monitored by a Programme Implementing Unit headed by an Executive Engineer.

Next it is monitored by a group called the State Quality Monitors, and subsequently by the National Quality Monitors.

The National Quality Monitors (NQM) recently came and observed the works, Khemchand said.

He further stated that the monitoring is done following the guidelines of the Ministry 'independent of us' .

Under the PMGSY, maximum roads were built in Manipur during 2022-2023.During the year, a record 1339.93 kilometres of road was built under the scheme, he said.

Unfortunately, the violence broke out in Manipur and it disrupted all work.

Rs 70 crore worth of equipment and machinery were destroyed and damaged during the crisis in Churachandpur and Senapati district.

The compensation for these have not been given yet, he added.

The Minister, however, stated that all the liabilities for works that were completed before the violence have been settled.

For ongoing construction works, the Finance Department has received rs 161 crore.

Construction works are on swiftly at all locations where there is no violence/tension, he said.

In Churachandpur, a local person has been appointed EE in-charge and works are being carried out under him, he said.

The Minister further stated that the State and the Department can't prepare work programmes related to PMGSY.

For example, he said the approach road to the Solid Waste Management Plant was included in the proposal, but the Central Ministry removed it in its programme for lack of criteria.

Responding to a query raised by MLA Th Lokeshwar, the Minister asked him to write to the Chief Engineer for including the road he wants under the scheme for carrying out necessary surveys and sending a proposal to the Central Ministry.

As per the PMGSY-III guidelines, Khemchand said the road to be included under the scheme must be at least 5 kilometres long, and it should have schools or Government offices along the stretch. All works under the PMGSY-III are done using machinery, and there is no manual work, he added.

In the previous financial year, the total length of roads sanctioned under the PMGSY scheme was 812.50 kilometres.

Rs 407.70 crore has been sanctioned for 502.24 kilometres.

Fund for 310.26 kilometres is pending, he said.

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