By IANS
New Delhi : The construction of rural roads and rural telephony as part of the government’s flagship programme Bharat Nirman has been “satisfactory” so far and progressing “extremely well”, says a government report.
In the rural roads sector, the progress was satisfactory considering that out of the target of linking 66,802 villages by all weather roads, only 13,831 have been connected, it was stated at a review meeting Thursday chaired here by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The prime minister has written to all chief ministers to ensure that the targets are met.
The meeting was informed that around 40,000 km of new link roads have been built and 50,000 km of existing rural roads were upgraded in the first two years (2005-2007) of the programme.
It noted that the extension of telephony to 66,822 villages was doing “extremely well” and the target would be met two years ahead of schedule with 48,125 villages having been covered till May 2007.
When completed, 14,183 villages will be connected through satellite technology and the rest through other technologies.
As part of the effort to increase rural teledensity, about 80,000 towers will be installed by May 2008 to facilitate mobile and other wireless services in rural areas.
Efforts are also on to provide broadband services to cover 200,000 villages in 5,000 blocks across the country to create 50 million rural connections by 2007.
In the roads sector, 90 percent habitation connectivity has been achieved in nine states – Assam, Bihar, Chatitisagarh, Jharkand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the meeting was informed.