The state has seen massive development of infrastructure over the years, including rapid expansion in road, railway, aviation and telecom networks.
Under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Raman Singh, Chhattisgarh has made rapid strides in all-round development and improvement of infrastructure and telecom networks from 2000 to 2018.
RAILWAY NETWORK
Comparison of the railway network in Chhattisgarh in 2000 and 2016 shows the extent of progress made by the state. While in 2000, total railway lines were 1,187 km, so far in 2016, it is 1,744 km, and work is still in progress.
In 150 years of Indian railway history, only 1,187 km of railway lines could be laid in Chhattisgarh till 2000.
The Chhattisgarh government, through special initiative and strategic partnership with public sector units, has formulated a work plan to develop the railway network in the zones having no railway facilities.
The work for 311 km of railway lines in the eastern and eastern-western zone of the state, has started. Work for the Kharsia-Dharmjaygarh-Korba 180 km railway line under the east-corridor and Gevra to Pendraroad 131-km railway line under the east-west corridor, is in progress. The railway network of 235 km from Dallirajhra to Jagdalpura is being constructed in the southern area of the state.
Apart from this, to ease the pressure of railway traffic in the central area of the state and for expansion of railway lines in the Sarguja zone, there is a consent for the development of a 762-km railway network.
A joint venture has been formed with the Ministry of Railways for the development of the Raipur-Balodabazar-Jharsuguda (310 km), Ambikapur-Barwadih (182 km), Dongargarh-Khairagarh-Kawardha-Mungaoili-Kota (270 km) railway lines. Apart from this, the Mumbai -Kharagpur east-west frontier rail corridor, an ambitious project of the Central government, will also cross through Chhattisgarh.
ROAD NETWORK
On 1 November 2000, when the 27 districts of the new state of Chhattisgarh were carved out of Madhya Pradesh, the road network in the state was anything but good. However, a record growth has taken place in the last 14 years. Rating agency CRISIL has rated Chhattisgarh as one of the fastest growing states in the last five fiscal years before 2018. When the state was formed, the budget of the PWD was only a paltry Rs 229 crore, in 2003, the budget was only Rs 773 crore, but by 2018, it has reached a staggering Rs 7,795 crore—a 34-fold increase since the state came into being. To maintain the national highways, the state budget and Central grant totalled to only Rs 0.05 crore when the state was created. This was hiked to Rs 32 crore.
The state took the help of several financial institutions as well. The state set up the Chhattisgarh Road Development Corporation and received permission to construct 26 new roads with this financial outlay.
New roads have provided better connectivity in the state. More than 995 new bridges have been built in the state.
The statistics speak for themselves.
In 2003, there was 2,225 km length of national highways in the state; this went up by almost 1,000 km to 3,222 km by 2017.
State highways increased from 3,213 km to 4,369 km. Main district roads have shot up from 2,118 km to 11,338 km. The improvement in connectivity that the state has witnessed has been dramatic.
Multilane roads have shot up from only 31 km to 934 km and two-lane roads from 1,251 km to 6,271 km. There were only 66 bridges in the state, but there are 1,061 now.
The state has an ambitious target for the next three years. It plans to complete 388 roads at a cost of Rs 19,326 crore till March 2018. All roads from division to district HQ and from district to block HQ will be two-lane and roads connecting divisional HQ will be four-lane and six-lane. In all, 20 bypasses will be made at an expenditure of Rs 253 crore; 11 railway bridges and underbridges for Rs 85 crore and five flyovers at Rs 209 crore are proposed.
AVIATION
To develop the only airport at Mana-Raipur as per international standards, work for expansion of a runway is in progress. Airports are being expanded at Bilaspurand Jagdalpur.
The construction of airstrip at Ambikapur and Balrampur has been completed. There is a proposal for construction of new airstrips at Dantewada and Bijapur.
The state government is working on development of airports at Bilaspur, Jagdalpur, Ambikapur, Raigarh, Korba, Balrampur and Jashpur.