NABARD has approved 21 road and bridge projects for Himachal Pradesh, including five road projects for Sirmaur district, State MPP and Power Minister Sukh Ram Chaudhary said on Wednesday.

Chaudhary said approval has been provided by the NABARD for construction of three major new roads and improvement of one link road for Paonta Sahib Assembly Constituency of Sirmaur district.

The forest clearance has been received from the Central government for the upgradation of one road in Pachhad constituency and construction of one road in Renukaji Assembly Constituency.

Besides, approval has been provided to 6.5 kilometer long Rajpur-Kuthiana road in Paonta Sahib constituency with an estimated cost of Rs 1,049.01 lakh, 5.6 kilometer long road from Santoshgarh bridge to Fatehpur village on the banks of river Batta at an estimated cost of Rs 739.25 lakh and 1.83 kilometer long road from Gorkhuwala Panchayat Ghar to Dudhla and Kharonla at an estimated cost of Rs 319.01 lakh, he said

Chaudhary stated that approval has also been given for upgradation and improvement work of 8.04 kilometer to Amargarh-Johdon-Kyarda-Jagatpur-IPH Colony Majra road on National Highway-07 in Paonta Sahib Constituency. The estimated cost of this work will be Rs 1,023 lakh.

All the formalities have been completed for all these projects and tender process would be started soon.

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has also given forest clearance for the construction of a link road from Madhana village to Phandibodiwala via Janglot under Renukaji Assembly Constituency of Sirmaur district. The construction work of this road was pending for a long time and he had personally taken up the matter of forest clearance with the Central government due to which this approval has been obtained.

He further informed that with the construction of this road, more than 50 thousand people of 30 panchayats of the area would be benefitted and the road length to Delhi, Ambala, Karnal, Jaipur, Renukaji, Haripurdhar and Rajgarh would be reduced by about 50 kilometer. Along with this, religious tourism will also be encouraged in the state, because the distance of various religious places will be reduced by this route.

Apart from this, this route will also prove beneficial for the Renuka Dam project and all the required formalities are being completed on priority after which the work on this road will be started soon. The long pending demand of the people would be fulfilled by the construction of this road, he added.