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Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Union Minister for Rural Development has said that all habitations, which are more than 500 population, should be connected by 2007. He was presiding over the second meeting of the General Body of the National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA) here today. In his opening remarks, the Minister, who is President of NRRDA, underlined the fact that the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is one of the key components of the poverty reduction strategy of the Government.
The Minister cautioned the NRRDA, an agency of Rural Roads Development and stated that the preparations of District Rural Roads Plan (DRRP) and identification of the Core Network was an extremely important job which require transparency at all levels. The Minister advised the NRRDA to take the lead in helping States to adopt appropriate low-cost need-based technologies including gravel roads in order to provide basic all-weather access to far-flung rural areas of the country.
While stating that the resources would never be a constraint in the implementation of the programme and that in addition to the existing diesel cess funds have already been arranged from World Bank and Asian Development Bank, the Minister also stated that the Central Road Fund Act was proposed to be amended to enable leveraging of the diesel cess to generate additional funds for the programme. The NRRDA would play an important role in this process also by becoming a Special Purpose Vehicle for leveraging diesel cess.
The Minister further stressed on the need to ensure that the quality of construction should be the highest possible for the sector and that the quality monitoring system should ensure checking of quality of materials and workmanship at every stage of construction. Side by side, adequate attention should be paid to the maintenance of the roads so that the poverty reduction achieved through rural connectivity can be sustained over the long term.
The Minister also hoped that adequate training of engineers, contractors and personnel and workmen would be carried out under the programme and that seminars and community awareness programmes should be held to ensure participation of all stakeholders in the programme.
The General Body gave in-principle approval to the organisational strengthening of NRRDA to enable resource mobilisation through leveraging. The General Body also reviewed the progress of implementation of the PMGSY Scheme and adopted the audited accounts and annual report of the Agency for 2003-04.
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