Last year, during her visits to north Bengal, she had expressed her displeasure over the poor riding condition of the highway from Siliguri to Jalpaiguri and later inquired as to why the repair work was not being undertaken.
PHOTO: STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
The state government has expressed concern over the poor road conditions in north Bengal and urged the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to repair NH-34 that connects Barasat in North 24-Parganas to Dalkhola in North Dinajpur.
The state PWD has complained of the deplorable condition of the highway which is a lifeline between north and south Bengal and requested NHAI to take necessary measures to repair the stretches.
“The responsibility of repairing the national highways rests with the Centre so we have to ask NHAI to repair the highways as and when required. As NHAI takes up only patchwork in some areas, the road condition remains the same throughout. Now, the condition of the highway has deteriorated further due to the monsoon,” said an official at Nabanna.
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This comes a few months after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had slammed the Centre over the poor maintenance of the national highways while she stressed that the state government has always played an active role in maintaining the state highways.
Speaking at an administrative meet in Nadia, Miss Banerjee had alleged that despite repeatedly requesting the Centre to repair National Highway-34 for the last three years, nothing much has been done to improve the condition. She had complained that the condition of some of the stretches on NH34 is so poor that repair work has to be undertaken immediately.
Last year, during her visits to north Bengal, she had expressed her displeasure over the poor riding condition of the highway from Siliguri to Jalpaiguri and later inquired as to why the repair work was not being undertaken.
Miss Banerjee has often pulled up the Centre over poor road conditions along with lack of maintenance of the national highways while the latter has held the state government responsible for its failure to hand over additional land for expansion of some of the highways.
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