Addressing a press conference here, Vanlalduhsaka promised maximum utilisation of the working season by clearing all backlog and new projects, especially construction of roads, bridges and buildings.
"We expected to receive Rs 636.91 crore for construction and maintenance of roads during the current fiscal," he said, adding that the state PWD would need more reliable contractors and timely commencement of the projects.
He said that the density of roads in Mizoram was extremely low at 35.27 kilometres per 100 square kilometres as against the national average of 129 kilometres per 100 kilometres.
"The state PWD would need 59 years to reach the All India average if allotted Rs 500 crore a year, but we would require 129 years at this year's rate of fund allocation," he said.
On the building side, the engineer-in-chief said that only eight per cent of the government employees could be provided with government quarters while Nagaland could provide quarters to 70 per cent of its employees.
He also lamented that the state PWD was allotted only 10 to 15 per cent of its annual requirement for maintenance of roads which resulted in their extremely bad condition.
"The PWD was allocated 19 per cent of its fund requirement this year for road maintaintenance this fiscal, which is the highest ever allocation ever," he said.
