Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana Phase III - Everything You Need to Know About

As we all know, the Indian government has many schemes for uplifting rural population and working for their development. Starting from MGNREGA, National Rural Livelihood Mission to National Rural Health Mission India has it all. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana is one such scheme of the government with the goal of poverty reduction and better connectivity. The main concern of this scheme is to develop and maintain the roads and to increase rural-urban interaction. The better the connectivity of roads, the better is the connectivity to markets and Urban facilities. Thus by creating good roads the government wants to ensure economic as well as social development.

Overview 

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was introduced on 25th December 2000 under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This scheme works for the construction and improvement of the roads, making the surrounding of roads greener and ensuring that the core network and link routes are well connected. It comes under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Rural Development.

Objective 

The main objective of this initiative is to link the places which are not yet connected with all-weather roads. This will increase the connectivity to the isolated areas and villages and will increase their access of the urban areas. Another objective of this scheme is the renovation of existing roads to ensure its durability.

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana-I AND II 

On 9th August 2018 the government and CCEA decided to extend the period for PMGSY- I and II to the year 2019. Every state and union territory was given the target of March 2019 to complete PMGSY-I. After completing phase- I and II the states and Union territories could start with the third phase of PMGSY.

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana- III 

Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech announced the PMGSY- III scheme. This scheme was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affair which was chaired by PM Narendra Modi. The main aim of this scheme is to increase the connectivity of the villages with higher secondary schools, hospitals, gramin agricultural market to ensure proper educational, medical and market facilities. It caters to location with a population size of 500 in plains and 250 in hills, deserts and North Eastern states.
Another objective of phase III is the building of bridges of width 150m in plains and 200m in North Eastern states and Himalayas.
Duration: 5 years plan 2019-2020 to 2024-2025

Funds 

Initially PMGSY was a 100% Centrally sponsored scheme with a 50% cess on high speed diesel. The expenditure got divided between centre and states after 14th Finance Commission report’s recommendation.
Before the implementation of phase III, all the states are required to enter a Memorandum of Understanding for providing and allocating funds for maintenance.
Estimated cost- Rs. 802504
Share of centre and state- 60:40
Share of centre and state in case of North East (8 states) and Himalayas (3 states)- 90:10

Use of technology 

Green technology is being used by the scheme which promotes recycling in the process of building the roads. Unconventional items and materials which can be reused are used like waste plastic or fly ash to make the roads.
This initiative has not only used unconventional products but have tried to bring transparency by utilising IT, mobile and space technology. The app- “Meri Sadak” has been launched to help the citizens to record complains regarding road quality, which can further help the government to enact facilities accordingly.

Conclusion 

The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana is a scheme that has benefitted a lot of rural areas, it has already covered most of the areas of Phase-I and some areas of Phase-II with all-weather roads. It has received the support of World Bank and is moving towards improving the rural income by increasing the connectivity.

Hey, I am Srijoni and I am pursuing Philosophy (hons) from LSR, University of Delhi. I am passionate about learning new things and exploring new places.

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