Rural roads in all 26 lakh villages by 2012 Raghuvansh Prasad

Jaipur, Nov 16(UNI) Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh today said rural roads spreading on a stretch of 26 lakh Kms will be constructed in the country to connect all 6 lakh villages to roads by 2012.

Delivering the inaugural speech at the 68th Indian Road Congress here, Mr Singh said the Manmohan Singh Government was according higher priority to road network strengthening as road access in every village was necessary for poverty alleviation, universalisation of education and health services and employment.

Accordingly, the government had also paid due priority to road construction in the Bharat Nirman Programme allocating Rs 48,000 crore for connecting all villages up to 1000 population to roads by December 2009.

He said 3,70,000 Kms of new rural roads would be constructed and 3,71,000 Kms of existing roads would be upgraded with a huge investment of Rs 1,32,000 crore by next 10 years.

UNI