Out of the 602 villages sanctioned for connectivity under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in Meghalaya, a total of 489 villages have been connected with roads while 113 villages remain to be connected.
According to sources, all road projects under PMGSY-I and II were targeted for completion by September 2022. The implementation period of PMGSY-III is up to March, 2025.
During 2021-22, the opening balance of PMGSY for Meghalaya was Rs 240.02 crore. The amount released by the Central government under PMGSY to the State was Rs 483.92 crore.
Rs 681.14 crore was the total fund available including security deposits while the expenditure incurred including State share during 2021-22 was Rs 536.92 crore.
The Ministry of Rural Development launched PMGSY as 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 (250 and above, in case of North East states as per 2001 Census) in the core network for uplifting the socio-economic condition of the rural population.
The mandate of PMGSY has been subsequently widened to include new interventions. PMGSY-II was launched in 2013, with a target to upgrade 50,000 Km of the existing rural roads. PMGSY-III was launched in 2019 for consolidation of 1,25,000 Kms.
As per PMGSY guidelines, rural roads are a State subject and the State government is the nodal implementing agency in the State. Also, the unit for this programme is habitation, meaning a cluster of population, living in an area, the location of which does not change over time.
Various impact assessment studies that have been carried out by Independent Agencies have concluded that PMGSY has helped in better access to the marketplace for the rural communities and generated employment in various forms. It has also helped in also accessing various social services such as those relating to education and health. Resultant impact of these improvements has been substantial mitigation of poverty and unemployment.
IIM-Ahmedabad, in its study titled “Outcome Monitoring System under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), July 2017, (Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya)” concluded that the construction of PMGSY road was able to bring about socio-economic change in the life of the poor at par with the other sections of society and sometimes even more than that.
