Briefing about the poor condition of a vast stretch of National Highways in the state, West Bengal PWD Minister Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar said he had written his last letter to the Union Surface Transport Minister C P Joshi on September 21 requesting him to take an immediate action.
"However there is no reply as yet. We have to finalise our next course of action, as road transport in the state is suffering a great deal following poor condition of different National Highways", the minister said.
Out of 568 km stretch of National Highways in North Bengal, 111 km was in very poor condition, while in South Bengal 80 km of 907 km was in bad shape.
Despite state government's estimate to Centre of about Rs 280 crore in April-May 2012, covering Rs 171 crore for North Bengal and Rs 109 crore for South Bengal, only Rs 108 crore for North Bengal was received by the state so far, Ghosh Dastidar said.
The minister also said that the NH-55 was closed since mid-2011. An estimate of Rs 73 crore had been submitted by the three consultants appointed by the Centre for the Tindharia area (53 km) which still awaits sanction.
