{"id":545,"date":"2020-09-17T10:27:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T10:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/?p=545"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:27:36","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T10:27:36","slug":"rural-road-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/2020\/09\/17\/rural-road-network\/","title":{"rendered":"RURAL ROAD NETWORK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

India is not Calcutta and Bombay. India lives in her seven hundred thousand villages.<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Mahatma Gandhi<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Villages are the backbone of India. Villages play an important role\nin the socio-economic and human resource development of the nation. As per the\n2011 Census, nearly 68% of the Indian population lives in the villages.\nTraditionally, agriculture has been the main occupation and source of income in\nthe rural areas and nearly 40% of our nation\u2019s workforce is engaged in\nagriculture. Despite being an important factor in the national development, the\nrural areas lag behind in basic infrastructure like roads, transport,\ncommunication and electricity. A better rural infrastructure has primarily two\neffects\u2014promotion of economic growth and decline in the occurrence of poverty.\nThough the development in technology and introduction of new energy sources in\nthe recent years have brought about significant changes in communication,\nirrigation, power supply etc., the rural road connectivity is still a\nchallenging task for accomplishment and a big dream for the rural population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roadways are the most elastic means for connectivity as they can\nreach the extreme ends of the nation. The road network can connect metros with\nthe remote villages and towns with State capitals. They serve as a lifeline for\nthe road transportation in our country. Historically, people in the Indian subcontinent\nwere familiar with the construction of road network. The earliest evidence of\nthe road construction can be traced to the sites of the Indus Valley\nCivilisation. The excavations at the Indus valley sites give us information\nabout the existence of road network during the period, which were well\nconstructed and used for connecting villages to towns, ports, highways and\nother places in the civilisation. The roads served as a backbone of the trade\nand transportation between industrial centres and other important places during\nthe period. There were significant developments in the road network during the\nmedieval period and British period as well. As per the Road Statistics of India\nreport prepared by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, India has the\nsecond largest road network in the world next to the USA covering nearly 5 lakh\nkilometres. The report also says that the rural network, which includes the\nvillage roads and the district roads, covers more than 60% of the road network\nin India. Though the National Highways and State Highways are serving as a\nmedium of connectivity between the major cities and State capitals, they cover\nonly 40% of the road network in India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rural roads are one of the basic infrastructure of the rural areas\nand play a vital role in socio-economic development of rural community. Roads\ncontribute significantly to the rural development by connecting them with the\nmarkets, cities, towns and industrial centres, and providing a better access to\ngoods and services located in the nearby areas. Roads are the backbone of the\nrural infrastructure since they provide access to the goods produced in the\nrural areas and serve as an important means of connectivity. Even though the\nrural roads constitute a major portion of the national road network, quality\nand structure of the rural roads are not good when compared to the urban roads.\nThe rural roads are not all-weather roads and cannot sustain the extreme\nclimatic conditions like heavy rainfall and floods, which affect the quality of\nlife of the people living there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the initial years of the post-Independence period, the development\nof roads was in the hands of the States and did not see much growth and\nexpansion. The development of road network became a matter of national importance\nfrom the 5th Five-Year Plan where the rural road development became a part of\nMinimum Needs Programme (MNP). The rural road development plan under MNP\nproposed to link up all villages with a population of 1,500 or more with\nall-weather
\nroads and to connect with roads all the remaining villages with a population of\n1,500 and above and 50% of the total number of villages in the population group\nof 1,000 to 1,500 by the year 1990. This was the first major initiative towards\nthe development of the rural road network. This programme brought in\nsignificant development in the rural road structure and became a base for the\nroad development schemes introduced in the later years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the year 2000, the Union Government launched a massive programme\ncalled Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)for the development of\nrural roads. The core objective of the programme was to provide connectivity to\nunconnected habitations as a part of rural development and poverty reduction\nprogramme. This was a 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) with the objective\nto provide connectivity, by way of all-weather roads, to the eligible\nunconnected habitations in the rural areas with a population of 500 persons and\nabove in the plain areas. This scheme also proposed to follow cluster approach\nfor providing connectivity in the hill, mountain and border areas that have the\nabove-
\nmentioned population. The roads developed under the PMGSY were classified into\ntwo types\u2014main core network and other rural roads. The core network has to\nprovide main connectivity to the nearby towns, highways, markets and other\nimportant places of social and economic importance in the rural areas. All\nother roads developed in an area will be interconnected with this core network.\nSince the core network roads connect to the State and National Highways, there\ncan be a quicker transportation of the agricultural and other goods produced in\nthe rural areas to the nearby markets and faraway places. The State Governments\nwere given the responsibility to identify the nodal agencies like Public Works\nDepartment (PWD) or district administration to take care of identifying the\nsuitable areas that need the road connectivity and to carry out the road\ndevelopment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, the government and other procuring agencies, which were\nhandling the procurement of agricultural and other products from rural areas,\nhad to set up additional facility for the storage and transportation, since the\nquality of rural roads was not all-weather supporting. The absence of\nall-weather connectivity affected the transporting of the perishable goods like\nfruits and vegetables seriously. The PMGSY scheme solved such transportation\nand logistics-related issues in the country since the roads developed under the\nscheme are all-weather support roads with necessary culverts and cross-drainage\nstructures, which are operable throughout the year. Provision of better rural\nroads increased mobility of men and materials thus facilitating the economic\ngrowth. The scheme also includes a separate plan for quality process where the\nStates provide special fund for the maintenance of the rural roads and take\ncare of the defects periodically to ensure that the rural roads are in the\naccessible condition throughout the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rural road development scheme along with the rural employment\nscheme, introduced in India, has been recognised by various international\nagencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and has received\ntechnical and financial support from them. The World Bank has supported the\nPMGSY scheme by providing loan assistance to support the road construction in\nthe economically weaker States and hilly areas. The engagement with the World\nBank has also helped to develop a better system to identify the core network,\nprioritising the road selection, engaging the local bodies in the rural road\ndevelopment and maintenance of the infrastructure. The scheme brought about a\ndifferent approach in the rural road development like construction of\nenvironment friendly roads by utilising the waste plastic for building the\nwater resistant roads, and usage of non-conventional materials like fly ash,\niron and copper slag for constructing rural roads. The Central Government\nsigned a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2017 to raise\nfunds for the road construction in the States like Assam, West Bengal, Madhya\nPradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. This loan will be used for the construction\nof all-weather roads with reduced cost by utilisation of alternate materials\nlike industrial and construction waste with less impact on nature. The roads\nwill be designed in such a way to withstand the climatic risks with features\nlike better drainage, curvatures etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rural connectivity is the key component of rural development and\npoverty alleviation in India. The Asian Development Bank\u2019s study on \u2018Impact of\nRural Roads on Poverty Reduction\u2014A Case Study\u2019 has stated that rural roads are\nthe important factor enabling conditions for livelihood development for people\nin rural areas. Thanks to the schemes like PMGSY and Bharat Nirman, due to\nwhich the lifestyle of the people in hilly and remote areas especially in the\nnortheastern states has changed significantly. The rural road connectivity is\nnot just a transportation provider, but has also changed the lifestyle of the poor\nand very poor by enabling them better access to state services and improved\nprovision of services to the villages, and opportunities in alternative\nlivelihood income stream. These, in turn, assist in reducing poverty and lead\nover all social development.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India is not Calcutta and Bombay. India lives in her seven hundred thousand villages. \u2014Mahatma Gandhi Villages are the backbone of India. Villages play an important role in the socio-economic and human resource development of the nation. As per the 2011 Census, nearly 68% of the Indian population lives in the villages. Traditionally, agriculture has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":546,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}