State PWD department peformance dipped in 2012-15

Recent data by the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) shows that the state’s public works department (PWD) is in bad shape, even as the government claims that rural economy would get a boost with the construction of highways and expressways.

In the past three years from 2012 to 2015, the performance of the state PWD department declined when compared with the PWD department of Northeastern states like Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur, which are considered to be lagging behind in terms of infrastructure.

The MoRTH has released data of every state and Union territory on the completion of national highways for the period 2012 to 2015. The PWD department is under the jurisdiction of respective state governments.

Between 2012 and 2015, the state PWD department of Maharashtra was successful in constructing highways measuring 64.60 km, which is less than the Meghalaya PWD department, which constructed 315.28 km of highways, followed by the PWD department of Manipur, which constructed 110.19 km of highways and Assam, which constructed 212.24 km of highways.

Further, the data reveals that the PWD department of states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have constructed highways measuring 150 km on an average, which is almost 100 km more than that undertaken by the PWD department in Maharashtra.

The MoRTH calculates the construction in kilometres by considering the work of every state PWD department, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP), an initiative for the Northeastern sates.

The MoRTH also cumulates the data by Left Wing Extremism Division, which is a body of the Union ministry of home affairs formed for construction of highways in Naxal-affected region. It also considers the work carried out by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) which constructs highways in border areas.

Explaining the logic behind it, a senior Maharashtra PWD official, said, “We have contributed excessively for the construction of India’s first expressway which is the 95-km Mumbai-Pune expressway. In Maharashtra, the work is divided between the Mahahrastra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is also implementing agency of the 800-km long Mumbai-Nagpur Super Expressway, and NHAI. Unfortunately, the role of the PWD department has been limited to construction of flyovers in the city which is also given to the MSRDC and the MMRDA off late.”