Investment in rural roads saw 10-fold jump, says UPA report

Document sdays connectivity in rural areas has helped small farmers in carrying their agricultural goods to markets where they get better prices for their products

The investment in road construction in rural areas has increased ten-fold under the UPA regime, said the report card unveiled by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the fourth anniversary of UPA-II.

UPA II, which started off with announcements of a major push to infrastructure, said the government rolled out more than 20,100 all-weather roads across the nation besides pumping in huge investments to overhaul roads in rural areas.

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"There has been nearly a ten-fold increase in investment in road construction in rural areas under UPA government. More than 20,100 km all-weather roads have been constructed/ upgraded and an expenditure of over Rs 6,450 crore has been incurred during 2012-13," the report said.

Connectivity in rural areas has helped small farmers in carrying their agricultural goods to markets where they get improved return for their products, it said.

Singh in his speech said: "The expanded pace of investment in rural infrastructure have improved real wages of agricultural labour."

Agricultural wages grew at 6.8 per cent per year in real terms after 2004, which is six times faster than the rate of growth between 1994 and 2004, he said.

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The government has been under attack for dismal show on infrastructure front including by parliamentary panels which slammed it for 'ambitious' plans.

It spent most of the tenure battling to spruce up the sector in the wake of equity crunch, delays in clearances and problems like land acquisition besides major players abandoning projects mid-way.

While GVK Power and Infrastructure terminated its contract with NHAI for building Rs 7,500 crore major highway -- Shivpuri-Dewas Expressway in Madhya Pradesh-- another firm GMR Infrastructure had cancelled its pact with the authority for building the Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad highway.

The Ministry has set an internal target of giving 9,000 km of projects in 2013-14 in order to ensure award of at least 7,300 km to revive the sector against the backdrop of a dismal show last year when award of road projects declined to 1,933 kms -- much below the target of 9,500 km.

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Out of the 32 national highway projects awarded during 2011-12, 18 projects have not succeeded in obtaining financial closure.

Subdued market sentiments, equity crunch by builders and the tepid response to bids in respect of projects under PPP had plagued the sector while a parliamentary panel urged the government to come out of "pathological pre-fixation" with public-private-partnership (PPP) model and build roads through budgetary support.

Many important projects had to be dropped in the wake of reduced allocation while 20 stalled projects entailing Rs 27,000 crore investment are likely to be executed now.