Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the Bengal government would spend ₹1,500 crore in the current fiscal to develop and repair rural roads in an apparent bid to address the complaints over poor road conditions ahead of the Assembly polls.

“We have spent ₹11,000 crore to develop 39,000km of rural roads since the Centre stopped the release of funds under the rural roads scheme. This year, a sum of ₹1,500 crore will be spent to develop rural roads across the state,” said the chief minister in the House on Monday.

The announcement came against the backdrop of complaints aired by MLAs — irrespective of political affiliations — in the Assembly — that roads were in a pathetic state.

“The issue has drawn the attention of the ruling establishment. Since roads are an integral part of the lives of common people, the government would like to address the issue ahead of the Assembly polls,” said a Trinamool Congress MLA.

Mamata said that before the Centre had stopped the release of funds under the rural roads scheme three years ago, the state had built 1.30 lakh rural roads.

“The Centre had received some complaints over rural development schemes. They sent more than 150 teams to Bengal to inquire about the complaints. The state government has sent action taken reports whenever the teams raised any issue. But still, the Centre did not release funds under the rural development project. But I can proudly say that we have built 39,000km of rural roads with our funds and in future, we will develop more roads,” she said.

Sources said the government would start repairing rural roads after the monsoon and would try to develop some new roads, keeping the 2026 Assembly polls in mind.

'Funds diverted'

Mamata on Monday said the Centre had diverted funds meant for Bengal to other states and it was unethical.