Rs 80,250 crore to upgrade roads: Union Budget

 The central government will pump in Rs 80,250 crore to upgrade 125,000 km of roads over the next five years, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Friday.

This expenditure will be made under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), an ambitious scheme of the central government to provide connectivity to unconnected habitations across the country, she told Parliament in her Budget speech.

Sitharaman said the government had so far provided all weather connectivity to over 97 habitations in rural areas under PMGSY.

"PMGSY has brought many socio-economic gains in the rural areas. To accelerate the speed of achieving universal connectivity of eligible habitations, the target of connecting the eligible and feasible habitations was advanced from 2022 to 2019," she said.

The target of connecting the 97 habitations had been made possible by maintaining a high pace of road construction of 130-135 km a day in the last 1,000 days, said Sitharaman. 

She added that 30,000 km of roads had been built under the scheme using Green Technology, Waste Plastic and Cold Mix Technology, thereby reducing carbon footprint. IANS