All habitations to be connected by all-weather roads by 2019: Tomar

New Delhi: After reviewing the progress of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), Union Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar directed the senior state officials to speed up the execution of rural roads to achieve full rural connectivity by March 2019. The minister said that 1,78,184 eligible habitations with 500 populations in plain areas and 250 in hilly areas had to be connected by all-weather roads.

"It's the result of farmer-friendly decisions taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that about 82 per cent eligible habitations connected through road. As of now, 1.31 lakh habitations have been connected under PMGSY and another nearly 14,620 habitations have been connected through state government programmes," Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in an official press statement on Friday.

In March 2014, there were only 97,838 such habitations had road connectivity, which was just 55 per cent, the minister said.

"This has been possible by speeding up the pace of road construction and habitation connectivity over the last 3 years, reaching 130 km per day construction (highest in the last 7 years) in 2016-17. Work is in progress in all, excluding 1,700 habitations. Approval for the remaining habitations would be granted by December 2017 end and all the habitations would be connected by March 2019," the minister said.

According to the official note, a major challenge lies in Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand on account of the difficult terrain. In Chhattisgarh, Malkangiri district of Odisha and LWE areas of Jharkhand, the challenge is on the account of left-wing extremism. "The ministry is constantly following up with all these states to ensure achievement of targets by March 2019. Funds are not a constraint and states have been forthcoming with their state share," the minister said.

At the review meeting, which was attended by MoS Ram Kripal Yadav, Rural Development Secretary Amarjeet Sinha and senior officials of the Centre and states, it was also stated that the department is committed to complete GIS mapping of all rural roads of the country by 2018.