Centre to states: Frame policy for maintenance of rural roads

Rural roads are lifeline for the villages and the states should frame policy for maintenance of such routes constructed under the flagship programme PMGSY, Union Rural Development minister Narendra Singh Tomar today said.
As many as 14 states have framed policies for maintenance of rural roads, while the remaining ones have yet to frame such policy.
"...We all know what is the importance of rural roads in villages, it is a sought of lifeline for villagers staying there. In last two years we have been constructing the roads at very fast pace. Now the states should frame policies to maintain them. It is very essential the roads remain traffic worthy throughout the year," Tomar said while speaking at a workshop on rural road maintenance policy.

Speaking at the same event, Rural Development Secretary Amarjeet Sinha said the pace of construction of rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) has increased to 139 km per day from 70-75 kilometre per day from 2011 to 2014.
Rural roads is a state subject and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is a one-time special intervention of the government to provide rural connectivity, by way of single all-weather road to the eligible unconnected habitations in the core network.
More than 4.81 lakh km of roads connecting 1.192 lakh habitations across the country were constructed under the PMGSY till June 30.

PMGSY envisages connecting all eligible unconnected habitations with a population of 500 persons and above as per 2001 census in plain areas and 250 persons and above as per 2001 census in special category states Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.
Besides this, the habitations having population of 100 and above, identified by Home Ministry as crucial are also covered under this scheme.
The government has also launched the second phase of PMGSY-II which envisages consolidation of the existing rural road network to improve its overall efficiency.