RC Sinha

Ranchi, May 10: Chief minister Arjun Munda has decided to use the services of senior bureaucrat and man behind the world-class Mumbai-Pune Expressway R.C. Sinha to shore up infrastructure in Jharkhand.

A 1962 batch IAS officer, Sinha is said to be close to BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, who during a visit to Ranchi in March suggested his name to Munda. In fact, Gadkari even told the chief minister that he would be ready to work for a nominal salary of Re 1, provided he was given a free hand.

The chief minister, who has shown a willingness to turn to experts for ideas to turn the state around — economist Bibek Debroy has just submitted his development report — confirmed to The Telegraph he was appointing Sinha as adviser on infrastructure development.

“We wanted an expert who can get work done expeditiously. His track record during his long career instils a lot of confidence,” he said about the architect of 55 flyovers and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Former chief of Maharashtra Airport Development Company, Sinha, who belongs to Rae Bareilly in UP, retired from the IAS in 1996 and thereafter headed Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) when Gadkari was state PWD minister.

Earlier, Sinha also responded to the call of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and executed several projects, including a convention centre, international exhibition centre, a project to bring water from the Nagarjunasagar to Hyderabad city, a garment zone, biotech park, flyovers designed by Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA), industrial water supply project to Vishakapatnam from Godavari and planned Cybercity.

With the state government allocating a whopping Rs 1,700 crore for developing roads and Rs 1,600 crore for the power sector in the this year’s budget, Munda hopes the appointment of an expert such as Sinha will help kickstart the process of infrastructure development.

Munda admitted development projects had suffered during the recent anti-encroachment drive. “We will have to speed up things now. There is no way out,” he maintained.

On the three-member Bibek Debroy committee’s report, which Munda’s critics politely summed up as “old wine in new bottle”, the chief minister said he had uploaded it on the state government website for the public to respond.

“We will go ahead after getting their feedback,” he said.

The chief minister also wanted to put in place a state planning board for a systematic and planned approach to Jharkhand’s development. He was banking on Amitava Mukherjee, a senior project expert of United Nations, as vice- chairman.

But, unfortunately for him, it didn’t work out. Mukherjee wanted to come to Jharkhand on lien, but the state realised it was unable to match his UN salary and perks.

The chief minister also got in touch with senior bureaucrat B.N. Yugandhar, a former Planning Commission member, but he declined on health grounds.