State utilises 95% of funds under PMGSY

The Orissa government has utilized 95.29 per cent of the funds received under the Centrally sponsored Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) till July-end.

Out of Rs 8,104.59 crore received from the Government of India, the state has utilized Rs 7,723.03 crore.

At a recent review meeting of PMGSY held under the chairmanship of the state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik, S N Tripathi, principal secretary (rural development) said that against the sanctioned length of 29875.12 km, 21168.49 km of roads have been completed. A total of 5470 roads have been commissioned under the scheme.

There has been an almost five-fold increase in fund utilization under PMGSY over the past five years. In 2001-02, the financial achievement under the scheme was Rs 36.34 crore and it reached Rs 377.37 crore in 2005-06 and Rs 1924.25 crore in 2010-11.

The surge in fund utilization has been possible because of close supervision and new initiatives like fixation of work targets adopted in the rural development department, said Tripathi.

Enthused over the achievement, the department of rural development has now set a target to spend more than Rs 2,000 crore in the current fiscal and complete construction of 5,000 km of roads connecting 866 villages.

Meanwhile, the Union ministry of rural development has relaxed the norms for construction of all-weather roads to unconnected villages in 15 districts covered under the Integrated Action Plan (IAP).

The districts under IAP purview include Bolangir, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Sonepur and Sundergarh. All villages in these districts having a population of 250 and above will be eligible for connectivity under the PMGSY.

The digitization of road network in the state has been completed in 25 districts with technical support from the Orissa Space Application Centre (ORSAC).