1.5L villages connected to main roads: Govt

New Delhi: With about 1.5 lakh rural areas being connected to main roads, it seems the promises of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide all-weather road connectivity is getting fulfilled.

According to the latest report, the government in its three years of governance has completed road construction work in 1,41,311 rural areas, while the work in 23,726 villages is about to be completed very soon are close to ready. As per the statistics, 6,683 villages in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal

Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir have been connected with the main road during the three years.

According to a senior official in the Ministry of Rural Development, roads measuring about 1.32 lakh kms have been constructed in rural areas to connect villages to the main road. The speed of road construction has also increased to 134 km/day from 96.31 km/day in the year 2015-16, the official said.

According to the official, the government has set a target to provide road connectivity to other 1,78,184 rural areas out of which the road construction work for 1,64,913 villages has already been sanctioned, which would be completed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

According to the official, the major benefit of connecting the rural areas with the main roads is the promotion of trades based on agriculture and milk. "A survey is also being conducted to find out as how villagers got benefitted from the roads constructed in their areas that connected to main roads," the official said.