Bharat Nirman may prove costlier

The government's ambitious Bharat Nirman programme is expected to cost an additional Rs 70,000 crore, according to initial estimates of different ministries. The programme aims at improving basic amenities in the rural areas.

The national committee on rural infrastructure, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will meet tomorrow to finalise allocations for six critical areas in the sector.

The meeting would make final allocations for development work in irrigation, road development, water supply, housing, rural electrification and rural telecom connectivity which require huge investments.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh are also on the committee.

The prime minister had already announced Rs 1,74,000 crore for the programme to be implemented in five years and identified the above mentioned six areas as thrust areas for development and growth of rural economy.

Of this, about Rs 70,000 crore was expected to be required for irrigation projects alone. Rural electrification was estimated to cost Rs 16,000 crore. The World Bank was likely to be approached for loans.

Under the scheme, villages with a population of 1,000 (500 in tribal areas) would be connected via roads, 60 lakh additional houses constructed for the homeless rural poor and an additional one crore hectare area in the rural areas would be brought under irrigation.

Also, 74,000 habitations would be provided with drinking water. The government had set a target for electrification to cover the remaining 1.25 lakh villages providing electricity connections to 2.3 crore households and telephone connectivity to remaining 66,822 villages during the five-year period.