The Madhya Pradesh government today asked the Centre to denotify 10 national highways passing through the state,accusing the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) of extremely poor maintenance. This follows a resolution passed by the state cabinet on Tuesday asking the Centre to hand over these stretches. In a letter to Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways C P Joshi,sent on Wednesday,Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan enclosed photographs showing how these stretches had become un-motorable,with water-filled potholes,causing mishaps and traffic blockades. Madhya Pradesh has received excess rainfall so far,thereby aggravating the situation. Pointing out that the total length of national highways passing through the state is 4,709 kilometres,the letter said the union ministry had entrusted the NHAI with reconstruction and maintenance work of 3,827 kilometres,of which 2,393 kilometres is in bad shape. The stretches include: Gwalior-Dewas; Rewa-Lakhandon; Jabalpur-Bhopal; Biora to Rajgarh (up to Rajasthan border); Indore-Betul; Obaidullaganj-Betul; Katni-Shahdol-Anuppur (Chhattisgarh border); Sagar-Chhatarpur (Uttar Pradesh border) and Bhopal-Raisen-Salamatpur-Sanchi. While the maintenance of these roads was the responsibility of the national highway division of the state PWD earlier,the arrangement changed in the last two years and NHAI was asked to take over,said the letter. Chouhan also pointed out that the Centre had earlier denotified the busy Bhopal-Dewas (which connects to Indore) and the Lebad-Ratlam-Jaora-Neemuch-Nayagaon stretches,after which the state government built four-lane roads.
