BHUBANESWAR: The State may not keep its date with the flagship rural connectivity programme under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
At the end of the third quarter of the current financial year, the State Government has completed construction of only 1,032 km of rural road against a target of 8,715 km.
As the State topped the list at the national level in rural road construction in 2018-19 by completing 8,151 km against the annual target of 8,000 km, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) gave the highest target for 2019-20.
The Ministry had fixed the target to construct 8,715 km of road in the current fiscal to provide all-weather connectivity to 1,098 habitations. Making an allocation of Rs 1,800 crore as its share for the State, MoRD had assured that the financial assistance under the scheme will be subject to upward/downward revision of the physical target during 2019-20 keeping in view the pace of expenditure by the State and availability of funds.
However, the PMGSY dashboard of the Ministry that maintains update data said only 1,032.19 km of road has been completed providing all-weather connectivity to 105 habitations.
The State is required to expedite construction works to complete 7,683 km of road in next three months.
“Construction of rural roads under PMGSY got considerably delayed due to the simultaneous elections to the Odisha Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha. It only picked up after June but the progress slowed down due to monsoon rains and cyclone Bulbul,” sources in the Rural Development department said.
Exuding confidence that the annual target will be met in next three months, the sources said tenders have been finalised for most of the packages and work orders have been issued. Road construction is going on in full swing.
Of the 22,211 habitations eligible under the PMGSY-I in the State, as many as 20,115 habitations have been connected and roads connecting to 5,703 habitations have been upgraded. As many as 1,675 habitations were provided all-weather connectivity in 2018-19.
There are only 6,410 habitations left for all-weather connectivity. While 1,144 habitations have population of more than 250 and less than 499 each, the remaining 5,263 habitations are having population of less than 250 each.