Rajouri, Oct 27: Giving a boost to road connectivity in far-flung areas of Jammu and Kashmir, a Pradhan Mandhri Grma Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) road is being built in the hilly region of Rajouri district, connecting Chingus to Rani Badetar, officials said on Friday.
The construction of the road will be completed in 2-3 days, according to an official.
“This road goes from Chingus to Rani Badetar and has a length of 6.5 km. The sanction cost of this road is Rs 1.30 crore and the allotted cost is Rs 97 lakh. The work is ongoing and will be completed in 2-3 days,” Parvinder Singh, Engineer PMGSY, said.
A local thanked the government for the road, as earlier the village people faced a lot of problems.
“Village people faced a lot of problems because the condition of the road was very bad. Earlier, in far-flung areas, if someone fell ill, there was a lot of trouble taking them to the hospital. I would like to thank the government for this road. Students were also struggling to reach schools and colleges due to bad road conditions. Due to the construction of this road, many people are constructing shops and some are building houses,” said Sanveer Singh, a local, said.
The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY-I) was launched in 2000 as a one-time special intervention to provide rural connectivity, by way of a single all-weather road, to the eligible unconnected habitations of designated population as per Census 2001.
In 2013, PMGSY-II was launched for upgradation of selected through Routes and Major Rural Links (MRLs) with a target to upgrade 50,000 km in various states and union territories.
Subsequently, in 2016, Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas (RCPLWEA) was launched for construction and upgradation of strategically important roads, as a separate vertical under PMGSY to improve the road connectivity in 44 worst affected LWE districts and some adjoining districts in nine states.
In 2019, Government launched PMGSY-III for consolidation of 1,25,000 km Through Routes and Major Rural Links connecting habitations, inter-alia, to Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs), higher secondary schools and hospitals.
Since inception till July this year, a total of 1,84,056 roads of 7,93,568 km and 10,082 bridges were sanctioned under various interventions and verticals of PMGSY, out of which, 1,70,857 roads of 7,12,638 km and 7,264 bridges were completed. (Agencies)