Govt to monitor construction of rural roads via satellites

Alarmed by the corruption in construction of rural roads, the Center will do geo-satellite monitoring of the entire process of construction of rural roads in the country. Recently, a four-month pilot project was conducted in five states- Odisha, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Assam by the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

The pilot study revealed that there have been few cases where there is a mismatch between the sanctioned road lengths and the actual length constructed. Nearly one-third (31 per cent) of the village roads in 10 districts across India were shorter than the sanctioned length. These findings alarmed the government, prompting the ministry of rural development to undertake monitoring of all such roads in India under the scheme by the end of this year.

In this regard the government will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) for geo-satellite monitoring of the construction of rural roads in the country and also the roads which have been constructed, to ensure that there should not be any misuse of fund in construction of rural roads. The monitoring will be done for analysing the length and optimal alignment of roads along with cross-drainage structures over them, such as bridges.

The NRSA which manages India’s satellite data, uses a software that can study the images and calculate the exact length of a winding road, leaving little scope for manipulation. Overall the entire exercise will make the scheme more efficient and will help check misuse of funds. The government wants all the villages in the country to be connected through these roads by March 2019 and for these it has also launched the second phase of PMGSY which envisages consolidation of the existing rural road network to improve its overall efficiency.