There are a total of 50,178 villages in the State as per the Road Core Network prepared under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and, of them, 13,255 villages have no all-weather roads. This was revealed from the information furnished by Rural Development Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh in the State Assembly in response to a question of Congress MLA Bhujabal Majhi on Tuesday.

The Minister informed that by the time the PMGSY was launched, 20,641 villages had all-weather roads and 29,357 villages had no such roads. Under the scheme, 18,476 villages were found eligible and the Union Government sanctioned funds for 17,103 roads. Out of the rest villages, 1,325 villages have been connected with all-weather roads under various schemes of the State Government and 48 villages have not been included in the PMGSY-I for various reasons like wilderness, reserved forests etc.

Out of 17,103 villages, sanctioned under the PMGSY-I, 14,957 villages have already been connected with roads and construction works are going on in the rest 2,146 villages. The ongoing roads are targeted to be completed by March 2019. Out of 582 bridges, 251 have been completed and connected with roads.

A total of Rs 12,186.29 crore, comprising Central share of Rs 7,580.65 crore and State share of Rs 4,605.64 crore, has been sanctioned under the PMGSY for construction of roads and bridges from the year 2014-15.  Of the sanctioned funds, Rs 10,569.06 crore has been spent for construction of 24,598.82 km roads and Rs 1617.23 crore has remained unspent.

The Minister further informed that the State Government has provided Rs 1,270.45 crore for construction of roads  under the Mukhyamantri Sadak Yojana and, so far, rs 949.46 crore has been spent for construction of 1673.60 km roads and Rs 320.99 crore has remained unspent.

Besides, the Union Government and the State Government together have provided Rs 2,469.87 crore under the Plan Road and, of it, Rs 2258.78 crore has been spent for construction of 3,244.39 crore.