About 10,000 villages in the State are yet to be connected with all-weather roads as per information provided by various Government departments.
To a question of BJP MLA Dilip Ray in the State Assembly recently, Rural Development Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh informed that out of total 50,189 villages, 20,438 habitations had no all-weather roads and 29,751 were not connected with roads by the time Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana initiated on December 25, 2000. By now, 14,752 villages have been connected with the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and 1,305 other villages connected with all-weather roads under a different scheme. From this, it is revealed that a total of 13,684 villages have no all weather roads now.
In a statement, Ray said the information availed with the Panchayati Raj department is different. In the current year Government diary, it is mentioned that there are a total of 51,681 villages in Odisha.
As per the Health Department, there are 7,332 villages which don’t access ambulance services due to lack of roads. Of these, 998 villages are in Koraput district, 914 in Kandhamal, 817 in Rayagada, 583 in Gajapati, 535 in Kalahandi, 561 in Malkangiri, 483 in Ganjam, 329 in Mayurbhanj, 376 in Nabarangpur, 369 in Nayagarh and 210 in Sundargarh.
Arukh said a total of 12,292 roads and 441 bridges have not been have been completed at the total cost of Rs 20,982 crore and 3,319 roass 225 bridges are under-construction at an outlay of Rs 4,766 crore under the PMGSY. Similarly, a total of 384 roads have been completed at a cost of Rs 620 crore and 449 roads with an outlay of Rs 274 crore are underway under the Mukhyamantri Sadak Yojana.