Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

In order to give a boost to rural connectivity, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was launched on 25 December, 2000 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to provide road connectivity in rural areas of the country. The Programme envisages connecting all eligible unconnected habitations with a population of 500 persons (as per 2001 census) and above in plain areas, 250 persons and above in Hill States, the Tribal (Schedule V) areas, the Desert areas (as identified in the Desert Development Programme) and in the 60 Selected Tribal and Backward Districts in 9 States under Integrated Action Plan (IAP), as identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Planning Commission. Up-gradation of selected rural roads to provide full farm to market connectivity is also an objective of the scheme, though not central to it.

The allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) has dipped from Rs.24,000 crore to Rs 21,700 crore for the financial year 2013-14.

Achievements

The physical and financial progress of PMGSY upto the end of Eleventh Plan is presented in the table given below:

Although the PMGSY has achieved only 53 percent of its initial targets—mainly due to limited implementation capacity—its achievements have been significant. The length of the new and improved rural road network under the program to date has reached 209500 km and as a result 84414 habitations have been connected.

The main strength of the PMGSY program has been its ability to develop a strong national focus for rural roads development through the National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA). The NRRDA has developed a common set of operating procedures that are applied nationwide through the dedicated State Rural Roads Development Agencies (SRRDAs) and their Program Implementation Units (PIUs). These operating procedures are set out in a series of PMGSY manuals covering overall operations, technical design, quality control and accounting.

There is a systematic planning process in place which has included the prioritisation of a 1.5 million km core rural road network, of which about 750,000 km are eligible for new connectivity and upgrading under the PMGSY programme. The programme has also developed a web-based On-line Monitoring Management and Accounting System (OMMAS) which is accessible to the public.

Bharat Nirman

Under Rural Connectivity component of Bharat Nirman, all habitations having population of 1000 or more persons (500 or more in hilly and tribal areas) are to be provided connectivity with all-weather roads. Accordingly, the programme envisages to provide connectivity to 63940 habitations under above category. Projects to connect 58387 habitations have been sanctioned and 44089 habitations connected by constructing 141095 km of new roads up to 31 March 2012. Also 103471 km of roads are upgraded (excluding renewals by States).