J&K achieves highest road length in country under PMGSY in 2019

During the current fiscal year so far, the Jammu and Kashmir has achieved the highest road length in country under Centre’s rural roads’ programme of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), a centrally-sponsored scheme under the Union Ministry of Rural Development. This significant accomplishment involves completion of around 11,400 kilometres of different road projects covering 1,838 habitations against the total sanctioned length of 19,700 kilometres against sanctioned 2,214 habitations.

About Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

It is Centre government’s mega flagship programme with the main objective of providing good all-weather road connectivity to unconnected rural areas in the country. It is being implemented in J&K by Public Works (Roads and Buildings) Department of the Union Territory.

Funds: Under the Central Road Fund, 88 schemes have been completed, including 22 bridges and 66 roads, with a target set for completion of 25 such schemes for the current fiscal year. Under NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) funding, a total of 518 works were approved out of which 147 have been completed while 34 works have been targeted for completion during current fiscal year. The central government has released funds under the Prime Minister’s Development Programme (PMDP) for vital health projects in UT.

Supplementary Schemes: In 2018 the government also launched an ambitious scheme called ‘Languishing Programme’ to complete those projects that were stopped midway due to paucity of funds. The government thus arranged special funds for the completion of such projects. Besides this, a Special Bridge Programme funded under capital expenditure component of budget, a total number of 115 bridges have been taken up for execution and out of this, 59 bridges are being targeted for completion during the current year and as of now 46 bridges have been completed.

NOTE: Jammu and Kashmir, along with Ladakh, came into existence as Union Territories on 31 October 2019 after the Centre revoked Article 370 and passed a bill bifurcating the erstwhile state into two separate UTs.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2019