Govt, states connect 85% rural areas with roads under PMGSY scheme

In 2017-18 Budget, Centre allocated Rs 19,000 cr for PMGSY, while state's share pegged at Rs 10,000 cr

With a little help from states, the central government has claimed to connect almost 85 per cent of 178,184 eligible rural habitations through all-weather roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

Three years back in 2014, around 57 per cent of the eligible rural habitations had road connectivity even though PMGSY was launched more than a decade back.

However, a pickup in road construction to almost 140 kilometers a day helped in pushing the target of bridging all unconnected habitations with roads under PMGSY. 

Also, around 14,620 habitations out of the eligible 178,184 habitations (around 8 per cent) have been connected through rural roads constructed under various state schemes like Chief Minister’s Rural Roads Programme, which have been subsumed in the overall target.

Officials said much of these (roads build through state schemes) were constructed in the last three years.

“By March 2019, we plan to connect almost 97-100 per cent of the all eligible habitations,” a senior official said.

PMGSY scheme, which was launched in 2000 during the previous NDA regime, has been one of the most focused programmes of the government to boost the rural economy.

Around 480,000 kilometers (km) of rural roads had been constructed in the past 16 years since the start of the programme.

In the coming three years starting from 2017-18, the Central government along with states plan to spend around Rs 100,000 crore on PMGSY. This includes expenditure on building new roads, upgrade and maintenance of already constructed roads, and also build roads in hitherto unconnected Left-Wing Extremism affected districts of the country.

Officials in the know said around Rs 90,000 crore of this expenditure would be on the core programme (PMGSY 1 and 2), while another Rs 11,000 crore would be on the programme to connect Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas including their respective state share.

Of the nearly Rs 100,000 crore of expenditure on rural roads over the next three years, around Rs 65,000 crore would be Centre's share, while the remaining would be state’s contribution in the ratio of 60:40.

In 2017-18 Union Budget, the Central government had allocated Rs 19,000 crore for PMGSY, while the state’s share is pegged at Rs 10,000 crore.

A similar funding pattern is expected to be followed for the next three years taking the total allocation for the programme to around Rs 90,000 crore.

Additionally, the Centre and states would spend another Rs 11,000 crore on providing road connectivity to Naxal-affected blocks also under the same scheme of which Centre’s share would be somewhere around Rs 8,000-9,000 crore.

“In 2016-17 Union Budget also, the total Central share for PMGSY was Rs 19,000 crore, but from it, around Rs 2,000 was deducted as interest component on loans taken. So, the actual allotment to us was around Rs 17,000 crore, which along with the state’s share of Rs 10,000 crore took the total spending for rural roads to around Rs 27,000 crore,” the official said.

He said that an allocation of almost Rs 29,000 crore was also made in 2016-17, but the actual receivable was slightly less as the interest on loan taken was deducted which won’t happen from 2017-18 financial year.

In 2017-18, the Centre plans to construct around 51,000 kilometers of roads in rural areas at the rate of almost 150 kilometers per day. A record 47,447 kms of PMGSY road was constructed during 2016-17.  

From 2011 to 2014, the roads in rural areas under PMGSY were constructed at 70-75 kilometers per day. And in the next two years, it increased to 100 kms per day.

In 2016-17, roads were constructed at the rate of 139 kilometers per day.