PM to inaugurate national conference on rural roads

New Delhi, May 21 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate a two-day National Conference on Rural Roads on Wednesday.

Aimed at formulating collaboration strategies for speeding up rural roads plan, the conference will be attended by key experts from the Central and state governments, financial institutions, machinery manufacturers and private sector construction agencies.

On the occasion the Prime Minister will also release a document ''Rural Roads Plan: Vision-2025'', prepared by the Rural Development Ministry for future development of rural roads in the country.

The conference, organised by the Rural Development Ministry, will bring together all the stakeholders of the industry and provide a platform for chalking out collaboration strategies.

A series of technical sessions are slated at the conference in which the stakeholders would share their experiences about development of rural roads.

Around 1500 key experts from the Central and state Governments, financial and R&D institutions, field engineers from states, consultants, machinery manufacturers and private sector construction agencies are expected to participate in the conference.

A technical exhibition on various materials and machinery to showcase the achievements in the flagship rural roads development programme has also been planned during the conference.

Organising partners of the conference are National Rural Roads Development Agency(NRRDA) and Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC).

NRRDA was established in January 2002 as a professional and multi-disciplinary body to extend management and technical support to the Rural Development Ministry and the states for implementation of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

CIDC is an apex body set up in 1996 by the Planning Commission.

UNI