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Journalism of Courage
A record 55,370 km — nearly 152 km a day — of rural roads is being targeted for construction by the Narendra Modi government under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in the current fiscal. This will be more than the peak of 50,405 km (138 km/day) achieved in 2008-09.
Started by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-headed NDA government in December 2000, the programme actually gathered pace during the tenure of the Congress-led UPA regime, particularly between 2007-08 and 2010-11. Subsequently though, it faltered with the annual road lengths halving in the last two years of the UPA.
Under the Modi government, the PMGSY has staged a revival, with 47,447 km (almost 130 km a day) being built during 2016-17. The programme had originally envisaged providing all-weather road connectivity to every rural habitation having a minimum population of 500 in plains and 250-plus in hilly, tribal and desert areas. While 124,709 out of the eligible 178,184 habitations have already been covered at the end of 2016-17, the target is to connect the remaining by March 31, 2019.
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