Government sanctions Rs 176.54 for PMGSY

NI Wire

New Delhi

Thu, 01 May 2008: 

The Ministry of Rural Development on Wednesday has sanctioned a total of Rs.124.54 crore to two states as Grant-in-Aid for 2007-2008 for the scheme of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) to connect the rural and remote areas of the state to main roads. This project is 100 % centrally sponsored seme and began on December 25, 2000 on the birthday of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of NDA regime.

The Rural Ministry on Thursday officially informed that Ministry has sanctioned Rs. 20-crore to Nagaland as the second installment of Phase-V of PMGSY while Rs. 104.54-crore has been allocated to Rajasthan government as the first installment of phase seventh of the scheme.

Earlier on April 24, 2008, Ministry has also allocated Rs. 50-crore to Andhra Pradesh and Rs.2-crore to Karnataka as a partial payment for regularly processing the project. The project has been delayed to finish its target within deadline that was schedule to complete within 10th five-year plan.

The Rural Development Authority of State Governments that is the autonomous body would receive the allocated amount. The bodies would have to prepare separate account for this grant and for the previous releases; they would have to submit the Utilisation certificate and Audit Reports mentioning to any undue amount, as per official sources.

On the other hand, the World Bank, which is a supporting the government of India by part-paying of some project has permitted to release the 25% part of the agreed loan of worth USD 500-million for finishing the project rapidly, informed Minister for state Smt. Suryakanta Patil in the Rajya Sabha today.

This allocation has been used for finishing the project in Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Mizoram and Uttaranchal.

As per Ministry’s statistics, by the end of March 2008, 71090 number of road works have been cleared, 52828 new connectivity have been made, 18258 numbers of road have been upgraded while 41806 km of road construction have been completed. The 29125 km length of road construction is still in progress. Till date a total length of 261340.59 Km has been completed since the beginning of the project.

According to government’s plan, in the first phase, habitations of population of 1000 (500 in the case of Hill States, tribal and Desert areas) and above will be covered. In the second phase habitations of population of 500 (250 in the case of Hill States, tribal and Desert areas) will be covered. About 368,000 km of new road construction and 370,000 km of upgradation/renewal is expected to be done at a cost of about $26 billion.