A total of 485.10 kilometres of roads have been constructed in Meghalaya under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) last year.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the number of villages connected by PMGSY roads in the State during the period was 32.
In 2020-21, the road length covered through PMGSY in the State was 728 kilometres and seven villages were connected by road under the project.
Further, during 2019-20, the road length constructed under PMGSY was 273.95 kilometres connecting 29 villages.
During the financial year 2018-19, the road length constructed under PMGSY in the State was 211.424 kilometres with 42 villages getting connected by road.
PMGSY is a one-time special intervention to provide rural connectivity, by way of a single all-weather road, to the eligible unconnected habitations of designated population size (500+ in plain areas and 250+ in North-Eastern states, Himalayan states and Himalayan Union Territories as per 2001 census) in the core network.
As against project cost sharing of 60:40 between Centre and states in plain areas, the sharing pattern is 90:10 for states in the North East region.
On road portions subjected to heavy snowfall or landslides, where regular snow or debris clearance is done over a long period to keep the road open to traffic, roadway width was allowed to be increased by 1.5 m up to 7.5 m.
States have been allowed to provide adequate length of cement concrete drains along slopes to reduce the damage to roads.
Further, states have been allowed to provide a requisite number of protection structures and cross drainage works keeping in view the terrain, snow fall and deposition of snow in high altitude areas.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has agreed to share the cost of bridges up to 100 metre length, as against 75 metre in plain areas. Under PMGSY-III, the limit has been extended to 200 metre, against 150 metre for plain areas.
