The economic upliftment of rural population, a good percentage of which is below the poverty line hinges mainly on the provision of accessibility by means of roads. All sectors of development in the rural areas such as, agriculture, forestry, fishery, dairy farming, education, health, medical care and postal services etc. vitally depend on good road communication. Rural Roads thus provide one of the key and essential infrastructures for achieving the objective of integrated rural development and enabling the rural community to overcome their sense of isolation.

The Minimum Needs Programme (MNP) initiated by the Govt. of India in the Fifth Five Year Plan required that all villages with a population of 1500 and above and half of the villages having 1000 to 1500 population be linked with all- weather roads by 1990. In hilly, tribal, coastal and desert areas, these norms were relaxed to provide better coverage.

About 50 per cent of all villages in the country have been provided with all-weather/fair weather road connections The position in respect of big villages (population more than 1000) is much better since connectivity achieved is as much as over 80 per cent. However, there are wide variations of accessibility amongst different States. Haryana, Karnataka, Goa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are comparatively in a better position. But on the.other spectrum, there are all hilly States and the State of Bihar, M.P, Orissa and U.P where the accessibility levels are still poor and leave much to be desired for a balanced service to the rural areas in the country. People living in far-flung areas away from the Toad system still travel on foot carrying loads with them along foot tracks or bridle paths. Therefore, breaking the isolation of the village communities and drawing them into the mainstream of national life is a very important requirement which is receiving attention of the government.

The responsibility for the development of rural roads .basically lies with the concerned State Govts. However, the work of providing village link roads has also been cover~d as-a Part of the various centrally sponsored schemes notably Crash Scheme for Rural Employment, Drought Prone Area Programme, Command Area Development Scheme, Tribal Area Development Project, Food for Work Programme, National Rural Employment Programme, Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme and the Jawahar Rozgar Yojna Programme.

For effective coordination of the programme of rural roads, it is necessary that there should be a single agency in the State to implement all the programmes for the development of rural roads like PWD roads, Zilla Parishad roads and roads financed from various centrally sponsored schemes. In a few States, regular Public Works Departments are handling the work of rural roads in addition to State Highways and National Highways. In some States like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal there are Rural Engineering Organisations headed by a Chief Engineer with. necessary supporting staff. There are, however, quite a number of States where there is at present a multiplicity of agencies handling matters relating to rural roads. Efforts should, therefore, be made to have unified technically competent engineering organisations in the States where these are not existing at present. This would help in handling the rural roads programme judiciously and expeditiously.

During the current Five Year Plan (1992-97), an allocation of Rs. 3066 crore is earmarked for rural roads under the Minimum Needs Programme. For accelerating their development, there is need to enhance this allocation substantially.

The Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Surface Transport have been suggesting to the State Govts. to formulate District Road Master Plans on the basis of systems approach coordinating the socio-economic development plans as per the broad base concept of making a realistic assessment of transport demand and the corresponding requirement of rural roads. However, this has not been done in many States. Preparation of District wise Road Master Plans would go a long way in ensuring effective utilisation of the allocations being made for rural roads programme and achieving our goal of providing accessibility to all villages in the country by the turn of the century