Rural roads scheme misses target by 54%

Achievement

Bihar3929236 Jharkhand2594225 West Bengal2573842 Madhya Pradesh61622504 Arunachal Pradesh63795 Chhattisgarh43682068 Assam28641128 Total (of 28 states)3518216329  Under the PMGSY, the government initially plans to connect all habitations with a population of 1,000 or more in the plains, and 500 in the hill states and tribal and desert areas.  Subsequently, areas with a population of 500 (250 in the case of hill states, and tribal and desert areas ) are to be covered. About 3.68 lakh km of new roads are to be constructed. Another 3.70 lakh km of roads are to be upgraded or renewed.  Nearly 18 states, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand were not able to achieve the target for 2006-07. In contrast, states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab achieved the target.  According to the government data, Jharkhand was short of the target by 91 per cent, West Bengal by nearly 67 per cent and Madhya Pradesh by 60 per cent.  It seems that the companies implementing the PMGSY also failed to keep pace in 2005-06. The companies were short of the target by 19 per cent.