The ambitious Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), a vision to connect the rural India through all weather roads is a part of  Bharat Nirman projects. Under it road connectivity to all unconnected habitations with a population of 1000 persons and above in the plain areas and 500 persons and above in the hilly or tribal areas has to be provided. The program also has an ‘Upgradation’ component with a target to upgrade 1.94 lakh km. of existing rural roads  in order to ensure full farm to market connectivity.

Based on ground verification by the States, 54,648 habitations were targeted to be connected under the programme. The physical target under the programme is as under:-

Under New connectivity component 54,648  nos. Habitations to be connected and 1,46,185 km. of Road length to be constructed.  Similarly under the Upgradation component 1,94,130 km. of Road length has to be upgraded.                                          

            Upto March, 2009, construction of new rural link roads have been completed providing connectivity to 31,924 habitations  and 1.55 lakh km. of existing rural through routes was upgraded. The residual targets are required to be achieved by 2010-11.

Physical Progress during the year 2009-10:

The physical Progress under rural road component of Bharat Nirman for both new connectivity and up gradation during the 1^st quarter of the current year ( 2009-10) and also up to July 2009 has been indicated in the following table:-

Financial Progress during the year 2009-10:

The financial outlay under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) for the year 2009-10 is Rs. 18,500 crore including Rs. 6,500 crore to be drawn from the RIDF window of NABARD. Upto August, 2009, Rs. 7280.70 crore (programme funds) has been released to the States/UTs/agencies under the programme. As per the Progress Reports received from the States/UTs/Agencies, Rs. 5631.71  crore has been spent up to July’09. 

            New Initiatives for Systematic Improvement in the Quality of Programme Implementation

E-Procurement of PMGSY Projects:  In order to ensure timely tendering and award of the projects sanctioned as well as to enhance competitiveness and transparency in the bidding process, e-procurement of PMGSY projects has already started in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.  The Ministry of Rural Development has recently launched an initiative to extend technical support to other states for enabling them to take recourse to e-procurement of PMGSY projects.  In the first phase 13 states – Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Kerala -- are being covered under this initiative.  It is expected that these States would switchover to e-procurement by January, 2010.

Improving the Quality of Online Monitoring of Projects:  With a view to improving reliability of online reporting, the Ministry has decided that with effect from September, 2009 release of the programme funds (second instalment) and administrative funds would be subject to accurate reporting of physical and financial progress by the States.

Pilot Project of Citizen Monitoring of PMGSY Projects:  A pilot project was taken up by the Ministry in collaboration with the Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore, for field testing the concept and methodology of citizen monitoring of rural roads under PMGSY.  This exercise was conducted in four districts of Karnataka and Orissa.  Under this pilot project citizen volunteers were imparted training and provided with a tool kit to assess the quality of the road projects taken up under PMGSY.  This pilot project has demonstrated the feasibility and replicability of citizen monitoring and audit of road projects under PMGSY.

Strengthening of the Quality Monitoring Mechanism:  PMGSY has institutionalized a three-tier quality monitoring mechanism in order to ensure that the quality of construction conforms to the prescribed standards and specifications.  As a part of this process the National Quality Monitors (NQMs) under take random inspection of 10-15% of the projects for assessing the quality of construction.  With a view to incentivising rigorous quality monitoring during execution by the States, it has been recently decided that with effect from April, 2009 the full cost of the PMGSY projects rated ‘unsatisfactory with non-rectifiable defects’ on the basis of inspections by NQMs, would be recovered from the State Governments concerned against their future entitlements.  This measure is expected to substantially strengthen the quality control and monitoring process at the project level as well as at the State level.

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