Odisha way behind rural roads target

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha has constructed only 290 km of rural roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) against its target of 2,700 km in the current financial year, which will end in the four months.

This was informed by the Union Rural Development Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a query by BJD MP Achyutananda Samanta. The MP sought to know if the government is on track to achieve its goals in Odisha for construction of rural roads under PMGSY for the current financial year.

The Minister said the State connected 146 habitations during the period against the target of 326. The slow progress of rural road construction under the Central scheme was recently reported by The New Indian Express.

In response to another question on whether the government is considering implementation of another phase of the scheme to link all the remaining economically backward/LWE affected areas in Odisha and the rest of the country to the core network, the Minister said PMGSY is an one time intervention to provide all weather connectivity to habitations with a population size of 500 and above in plain areas and 250 and above in difficult terrains.