New Delhi, July 6
The government has increased its outlay for rural roads by 57 percent to Rs.12,000 crore ($2.5 billion) in the budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday in parliament.
"Rural roads have been identified as one of the six components of Bharat Nirman with the goal to provide connectivity to all villages with a population of 1,000 (500 in the case of hilly or tribal areas) with an all-weather road by 2009," said a finance ministry statement.
The northeastern region and Sikkim got Rs.1,067 crore for building their rural road network.
A total of 146,185 km of road length is proposed to be constructed by 2009, which will benefit 59,564 unconnected eligible habitations in the country, the ministry said.