GUWAHATI, March 28 - Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today asked the Public Works Department (PWD)-Roads to connect the interior areas of villages through Prime Minister�s Gram Sadak Yojana expeditiously for spearheading a new paradigm of village tourism.
Chairing a meeting of PWD (R) at the conference room of his office in Janata Bhawan, the Chief Minister said, �Road communication is the only medium to complement village tourism and a well laid out network of rural roads to boost the inflow of tourists to explore prolific rural tourism.� He also asked the Commissioner of PWD (Roads) Mohan Boro to construct the PMGSY roads expeditiously in the rural areas to harmonise village tourism.
�Rural Assam holds tremendous potential for developing tourism. The sprawling tea gardens and lush green forest areas with their unique flora and fauna present perfect ambience for rural tourism,� Sonowal professed.
It may be noted that 16,372 km of roads have already been laid in Assam under PMGSY. Moreover, 1400 km of rural roads have also been constructed in last nine months for facilitating rural communication. Sonowal directed the commissioner to prepare DPRs and take up the construction work of other 8000 km roads under PMGSY on a war footing.
As an incentive of satisfactory completion of construction of roads, government of India has provided Rs 73 crore for repairing of PMGSY roads in the State. Additional chief secretary, PWD Alok Kumar, commissioner and secretary to Chief Minister Sanjay Lohiya, Chief Minister�s legal advisor Shantanu Bharali and a host of senior officers of PWD were also present at the meeting, the press release said.
