Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna(PMGSY)

PMGSY was launched on 25th December 2000 with the objective of providing all-weather roads to the eligible unconnected rural habitations.

Criteria of eligibility:
• All habitations having a population of 500 (as per 2001 census) and above in plain areas.
• All habitations having a population of 250 and above in:

1. Hill States
2. Desert Areas
3. Tribal Areas (Schedule V)
4. Tribal and backward districts under IAP (Integrated Action Plan)

• The Government of India in 2013, approved a scheme of PMGSY II which envisages upgradation of existing major rural links to rural growth centres where cost of upgradation will be shared by states also.
• The Phase-III of PMGSY is also being finalised, wherein Sustainable Maintenance of Roads and Financial Incentives to best performing States will be the key focus areas.
• The Ministry of Rural Development is planning to give a financial incentive of 5 percent to the best performing States for maintenance of roads. There are 8 to 9 States in the country which are building standard and durable rural roads well before the scheduled target.
• Sensing the importance and urgency of rural roads for national development the target date for completion of PMGSY-I has been preponed from 2022 to 2019. Working towards this accelerated target, sanctions have been given to 1,66,012 habitations (93%) against the target of 1,78,184 eligible habitations. PMGSY through its all-weather roads has contributed this key ingredient of development to 11,499 new unconnected habitations for the first time in 2017-18.
• Less than 1% eligible habitations remain to be sanctioned for new connectivity under PMGSY, remaining 6% habitations are either not-feasible or sanctioned by the States from their own resources. Connectivity has been provided to 1,52,124 habitations (including 16,380 habitations connected by the States). In addition, 2109 habitations of 100-249 population have been connected. Under the program, 5,50,533 kms of road length has been constructed.

Suggestions for Improvement

• The current mandate of PMGSY needs to be expanded to achieve universal connectivity as these roads serve as entry point for poverty alleviation and provision of access to social infrastructure such as education and health.
• Some rural roads could witness traffic volumes that may justify widening to intermediate or two-lane.
• Fiscal federalism theory would suggest that since rural roads serve as the primary redistributive tool for the government, they should continue to be funded by grants from the center.
• For the financing of these roads, the current CRF (Central Road Fund) accruals and RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund) of NABARD may need to be augmented.
• The strategy of some states to raise funds through market committee fees on agricultural produce can be emulated by other states as well. Some funds for earth work can be leveraged from MGNREGA.

Central Road and Infrastructure Fund

Budget 2018 amended the Central Road Fund Act, 2000, and renamed the Central Road Fund (CRF) the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund. The Fund has been created by the central government for the collection of cess on petrol and high speed diesel (HSD) oil. Presently Rs. 8 per liter is collected as cess on petrol and high speed diesel (HSD) oil. Earlier, the fund was distributed solely for the development and maintenance of NHs, state roads, rural roads and for railway over-bridges/under-bridges and other safety features as provided in Central Road Fund Act, 2000. The objective of the amendment is to use proceeds of the road cess under CRIF to finance other infrastructure projects also such as waterways, some portion of the railway infrastructure and even social infrastructure, including education institutions and medical colleges. The government also constituted a ministerial panel headed by the Finance Minister to decide on fund allocation for infrastructure projects from the CRIF.

Border Roads Organization

BRO is a road construction executive force, integral to and in support of the Army. It started operations in May 1960 with just two projects namely Project Tusker (renamed Project Vartak) in the East and Project Beacon in the West. The BRO has not only linked the border areas of the North and North-East with the rest of the country but has also developed the road infrastructure in Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh.

In addition, it has been entrusted with construction of roads in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan
and Myanmar. It successfully completed 215 km Delaram-Zaranj road in Afghanistan despite the prevailing insurgency