ANNUAL STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP

At the outset Mr. C. Balu, Chief Engineer -TNRSP welcomed the gathering.

     Dr. T. V. Somanathan, Project Director, TNRSP during his address informed that the outlay for Highways Department for the Fiscal 2007-08 has been the highest. He also outlined the features of the Project and invited Stakeholders to take active participation. The Project Director also mentioned that as a pilot Project, the TNRSP was launching a major road safety campaign between Vellore & Tiruvannamalai.

     Mr.K.Allaudin, Secretary, Highways Department GoTN, inaugurated the workshop by lighting the Kuthuvilakku (lamp) and delivered his inaugural speech.

     The Secretary, Highways invited the stakeholders, press media and officials of Highways department to give their objective views and valuable suggestions in respect of functions of State Highways Department in order to improve the working efficiency of the department and also to bring about qualitative changes in road network to the satisfaction of the road users. Secretary, Highways elaborated various improvements being undertaken by the Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project. He further added that the project has already been launched and it is in the mid way of implementation and it has got three major components. Under upgradation component, about 740 km of roads will be upgraded to two lane standard from Arcot to Tuticorin covering 11 districts and civil works have already been commenced and progressing. Under maintenance component, enhanced strengthening will be carried out in four year cycle and it will be implemented through supervision by highways department staff and improvement of black spots (major accident prone zone) will also be carried out under this component for which 300 major accident spots were identified and 50 spots have been selected for improvements. Institutional Strengthening component has got various sub components like reorganization of existing structure, preparation of quality assurance manual, stakeholder consultation to solicit their views for better improvement of road infrastructure.

     The Secretary, Highways emphasized the need for stakeholder consultation and informed that Tamil Nadu is the only state which has commenced this kind of initiatives to bring together various people to solicit their views in order to have an effective and unique initiatives in developing the better road network with quality roads. The past experience shows that the improvement works namely upgrading, widening and strengthening of roads were taken without much consultation with the road users and the improvement works have been decided either by Highways Department or based on the representation received from the elected members. Based on the recommendation of the IDS consultant, stakeholders advisory committee has already been set up- one at state level and another at district level - to interact with various members to obtain feedback on progress achieved during the preceding year with service delivery improvements and also to offer their views for better improvements in road network and road side amenities apart from sharing of information in the activities of the department. These feedbacks will generally be used as inputs before embarking on the future programs. He further elaborated that both the central and state government have allocated huge funds to the Highways Department for the economic development of the state, to improve road connectivity of major industrial areas, towns, ports, pilgrimage and tourist centers.