The Indian Railways has generated 809,046 man-days of work till September 4 under the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan in six States, viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Around 164 Railway infrastructure projects are being executed in these states.
Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry was closely monitoring the progress made in these projects and the generation of work opportunities for the migrant workers of these states under the scheme, a Ministry of Railways release has said.
A total of 12,276 workers were engaged in this scheme and the payment of Rs 16.318 billion was released to the contractors for the projects being implemented. The Railways has appointed nodal officers in each district as well as in the states to coordinate closely with the state governments.
The Railways has identified the number of works being executed under this scheme. The works are related to the construction and maintenance of approach roads for level crossings, development and cleaning of silted waterways, trenches and drains along the track, construction and maintenance of approach road to railway stations, repair and widening of existing railway embankments and cuttings, plantation of trees at the extreme boundary of railway land and protection works of existing embankments, cuttings and bridges.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched massive employment -cum-rural public works campaign named Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan to empower and provide livelihood opportunities in areas and villages witnessing a large number of returnee migrant workers affected by the devastating COVID-19 on June 20. The Prime Minister announced that an amount of Rs 500 billion would be spent for building durable rural infrastructure under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan.
This scheme of 125 days involves the focused implementation of 25 categories of works or activities in 116 districts, each with a large concentration of returnee migrant workers in the six states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha.
The scheme is a convergent effort between 12 different ministries and departments, viz Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport & Highways, Mines, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum & Natural Gas, New & Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom and Agriculture to expedite implementation of 25 public infrastructure and other works relating to augmentation of livelihood opportunities.