Patna, Oct. 11: Fund crunch is sure to play spoilsport for those thinking of enjoying a smooth ride while moving on national highways criss-crossing Bihar.

The Centre is yet to provide fund to Bihar for maintenance of these roads in the first six months of the current fiscal despite the state having over 3,734km of national highways. The Bihar government has submitted proposals for maintaining these roads but the Centre has not yet approved them. The state, in fact, had submitted proposal worth Rs 1,061.64 crore as part of the annual plan of 2011-12 for keeping the national highways in good shape.

According to norms, the Centre provides the fund for maintenance of national highways and the state government works as an agency in carrying out the works in this regard.

“We are facing a unique situation. When we had spent fund from our resources, the Centre refused to reimburse the funds citing financial crunch as a reason. And now, when we are demanding fresh funds to keep the existing roads in good shape, the Centre is not releasing funds citing no reason,” said Bihar road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav.

As far as reimbursement of funds is concerned, the state government, in the past six years, had spent Rs 969.77 crore in maintaining 2,445.31km of national highways.

The Centre, however, refused to reimburse the fund. The Telegraph had carried a report in September in this regard which talked about the letter sent by the secretary of ministry of road transport and highways A.K. Upadhyay to the chief secretary of Bihar.

He had sent the letter in response to a communication sent by Bihar chief secretary in July this year in which he had raised the issue of reimbursement of expenditure incurred by the state government from its own funds for maintenance of certain stretches of national highways in the state.

Prior to the latest letter sent by the chief secretary, the matter was brought to the notice of the Centre on several occasions in the past but these efforts did not prove fruitful as the Centre maintained that the state government did not get the projects approved by the former before undertaking the maintenance work.

“People didn’t feel much difference in the past even though the Centre was not providing sufficient fund as the state provided funds from its own resources to keep the national highways in good shape. But things would deteriorate in days to come as the Centre’s refusal to reimburse fund to state has forced the state government not to spend additional fund from its own resources and now everything would depend on the funds provided by the Centre,” a senior road construction department official said on condition of anonymity.