VIJAYAWADA, JULY 12 :  Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed the officials of Road and Buildings to take steps to carry out repairs to the damaged roads in the state on war footing.

The Chief Minister conducted a review meeting with the R and B and the professors of the IIT on adopting the latest technology for the construction of roads in the State, in the Secretariat in Amaravati near here on Friday.

After hearing the version of the officials, the Chief Minister directed them to immediately take up the work of filling the potholes and focus mainly on the roads that need urgent repairs.

Chandrababu told the officers to immediately call for the tenders for the necessary works and complete the road repair on a war footing basis. The Chief Minister said that road users have faced various problems since the previous government did not bother to take up the repairs of the damaged roads. The officials informed the Chief Minister that potholes are found on the roads to an extent of 4,151 km and 2,939 km long roads need immediate attention.

The Chief Minister discussed with the professors of IIT and SRM University from Tirupati on adopting the latest technology in the construction of quality roads with minimum expenditure. They discussed in detail taking up the works not in the traditional way but by utilising various kinds of material for the construction of roads which can last long, particularly in heavy traffic areas.
The officials of the R & B informed the Chief Minister that even potholes were not filled nor pending bills were cleared for the contractors during the erstwhile five-year YSRCP rule.
The officers informed the Chief Minister that the funds allocated for the repair of roads were not spent in the past five years when the YSRCP was in power. Since the bills of the contractors, worth crores of rupees, had not been cleared they did not come forward to take up the road repair works. A minimum of Rs 300 crore is needed immediately to fill the potholes on the roads across the State, the officials apprised the Chief Ministers.
The Minister for Roads and Buildings, BC Janardhan Reddy, officials of the department, professors, construction experts, and others participated in the meeting.(UNI)