A sum of Rs1,700 crore has so far been accorded administrative approval for 1,070 roads measuring 3,700 kilometres under the ‘Chief Minister Rural Roads and Development Scheme’ so far in the State.
A provision of Rs450 crore has been provisioned in the state budget for the financial year 2013-14, according to an official press release issued here on Monday.
According to Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Hemchand Yadav, the rural roads programme started on April 23, 2011 with the prime objective of covering settlements which don’t come under the parameters set under ‘Prime Minister Rural Roads Scheme’.
He said that the rural roads programme of the state government has been launched to connect such roads with all weather roads ( roads motorable round the year) and also connecting settlements away from haat bazaars and administrative headquarters through ‘short distance’ roads with a view to providing ‘double connectivity’ in the regions.
The ‘double connectivity’ of the roads would help the villagers with the option of using two roads for reaching the haat bazaars and the administrative headquarters. The programme covers non tribal settlements of less than 500 population and tribal settlements of less than 250 population, the Minister said.
Yadav said that such roads have been chosen for which work had been done or being done through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) .
The concretization of lanes of villages which fall on these roads are being done apart from construction of passengers waiting room, toilet for women and parking space for tractors of farmers who come for loading crops on the way, he said.
This apart, ‘approach ramps’ are being prepared for tractors to reach the farms through appropriate slopes provided from the road besides installation of hand pumps for drinking water, Yadav said.
The work which utilises mud for development under MGNREGS has provided employment avenues to thousands of labourers in the State, he added.