Centre sanctions Rs 315cr for village road construction

RANCHI: The Union government on Thursday sanctioned Rs 315.73 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) to Jharkhand for construction of pucca roads and bridges interlinking its villages.
Rural engineering organization (REO) officials of the state rural development department said the fund will be used for construction of 37 bridges and 246 roads stretching a total of 642.92 km. These roads will link a total of 218 villages having a population of less than 250 people with pucca roads. The target time for completion of the project is March 2020. The state had sent a proposal for the project in October 2018.

REO secretary Aradhana Patnaik said, "We had sent the proposal for construction of roads in villages having population of 100 to 249 people, and it has has been approved. We are expecting the sanction letter within a day or two."

Since inception of PMGSY in 2000-01, a total of 20,432.39 km road has been completed in Jharkhand and a total of 9,472 villages were connected. The target for 2018-19 was 5,000 km to link 1,700 villages.

So far, the department has completed constructing a stretch of 1,008.72 km connecting 519 villages in nine months and is now targeting to complete the remaining 4,000 km (approx) in just three months.

Road construction under phase I of PMGSY in the state is divided into four parts, the first being linking of villages having over 1,000 population, with villages having over 500 population coming under the second part. The third and ongoing part is to link of villages having population of over 250 people and has to be completed by March 2019. The final part is for villages less than 250 people for which the Centre sanctioned funds on Thursday.

A senior officer of the department said , "Once the fourth stage is completed all villages in the state will be linked with pucca roads."