BANGALORE Feb 4: Though 74.3 per cent of India's population lives in its six lakh villages, and 50 per cent of the labour force depends on agriculture, more than 50 per cent of the villages are still not connected by road.This was revealed by Transport Research Advisor, Union Ministry of Transport M Ganesan, during his keynote address at the `Regional Workshop on Rural Roads', held here on Tuesday.
With dwindling budgetary allocation for construction of high-quality roads also, the percentage of roads constructed under the National Highways category has come down from 4.95 per cent in 1950-51 to 1.14 per cent in 1994-95. Only 45.7 per cent of the total road length in the country were surfaced. Out of the remaining 54.26 per cent, 16.78 was unmotorable. This meant that 67 per cent of people living in rural areas depended on bullock-carts, cycles and other non-mechanised modes of transport, Ganesan said. Interestingly, the Road Development Committee set up in 1927 envisaged all-weather road connections forall villages by the year 2001, he pointed out.
The World Development Report of 1994 said that a one per cent increase in infrastructure was associated with a one per cent increase in gross domestic product across all countries. Therefore, road transport through a well-knit road network was vital for enhancing the efficiency and productivity of the economy, he added.
Ganesan further pointed out the absence of uniform criteria for selection of road work, fixation of alignments and specifications. Construction of rural roads by multiple agencies should be stopped and work should be handled by a unified and technically competent engineering organisation under the Public Works Department. Maintenance and repair of rural roads was the responsibility of State Governments, though the Centre provided financial assistance to the States for implementing various central schemes.
As the investment required for infrastructure was too high for the Government to bear, traditional mobilisation of resources throughbudgetary allocations would be a ``drop in the ocean'', Ganesan said. Non-conventional means such as inviting domestic and foreign direct and institutional investment, Build Operate Transfre (BOT), leasing of Government assets etc should be adopted, he added.
Inaugurating the workshop, Public Works Department Secretary Major C R Ramesh said India required 66,000 KM of National highways and 1,45,000 KM of State highways during the next five years. This would call for an investment of Rs 4000 billion - Rs 5000. An Asian Development Bank report had projected that the country required 10,000 KM of expressways to achieve the 8 per cent growth rate.
Inspite of the vehicle population increasing from 0.3 million to 27.5 million during the last four decades, budgetary allocation for roads had shown a decrease. While the I Five Year Plan allocated 6.7 per cent to infrastructure, the figure had come down to three per cent in the 8th Plan, he pointed out.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
