Patna, May 24: State minister of rural works department (RWD) Bheem Singh today rapped central agencies for being “laggard” in road construction work in rural areas under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

“The state government is disappointed with the pace of road construction being carried out by central agencies. The five central agencies which have been assigned work under the PMGSY have together spent only 52 per cent of the total money sanctioned to them. Besides, they have comp leted only 51 per cent of the sanctioned length of roads under the scheme. Also, the quality of constructed roads is not up to the mark,” said Singh.

Singh expressed his discontentment during a news meet at his office today at Vishwasaraiya Bhavan. The minister recently surveyed the progress of rural roads construction in the presence of PMGSY state nodal officer, senior officials from all concerned central agencies and departmental heads of RWD.

“During the survey, we observed that the progress of work being carried out by central agencies is very slow and the maintenance of already completed roads is very poor. Besides, sub-standard quality of construction material was also observed during the survey,” said Singh.

The central agencies involved in rural road construction in the state are Central Public Works Department, IRCON International Limited, National Building Construction Corporation and NHPC Limited. It must be noted that the state government has already released around Rs 20.8 crore to these agencies for maintenance of already constructed roads while Rs 8,314 crore have been spent on laying new roads.

The minister informed that after finding serious loopholes in the road construction work, the central agencies have been given strict instructions to give fresh work plan for the delayed projects and also for the maintenance of ongoing projects.