Providing Connectivity to All Rural Habitations: Not Yet !


All-weather Rural roads are important to provide access to markets and services. However, over 73.6% of the habitations which were unconnected in the year 2000 still remain without all-weather roads. The government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in 2000 to provide all-weather connectivity for all habitations with population above 500 in the plains and habitations above population of 250 in hilly, desert and Schedule V areas with all weather connectivity. In the last 15 years, the governments has spent over ₹ 1,37,502 Crores to construct 4,23,937 kms of roads through PMGSY and various state schemes but still the coverage in some states like Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh remain poor at 12%, 18% and 26% respectively. It has also been observed that some states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have achieved more than 70% coverage by augmenting PMGSY with state schemes and Resources. Tamil Nadu and Gujarat connected 46% and 44% (respectively) of the unconnected habitations under state schemes.


State-wise Coverage of Unconnected Habitations
Allocation v/s Expenditure
Habitation Size-wise Coverage till 2014

Out of the 5,40,564 habitations unconnected in 2000, 1,96,941 habitations have been connected till date.

About ₹ 20,297 crores of the total expenditure was as Externally Aided Projects (EAP) supported by ADB and World Bank

Average cost of constructing a new rural road is ₹ 35.12 lakh per km while the cost of upgrading it is ₹ 27.23 lakh per km