Construction of 3,123 km rural roads, 43 bridges sanctioned: Himachal PWD Minister

Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Minister Vikramaditya Singh today said that road and bridges works worth Rs 3,345.81 crore had been sanctioned for Himachal Pradesh under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)-III.

Vikramaditya, while addressing mediapersons here, said that the department had successfully obtained sanction for the construction of 3,123 km of rural roads and 43 bridges at a total cost of Rs 3,345.81 crore.

He added that the department had made concerted efforts to expedite the execution of these works.

He said, “So far, 517.33 km of road length has been completed at a cost of Rs 802.59 crore. This progress reflects the commitment of the department towards improving rural connectivity in a time-bound manner.” He added that Rs 905 crore was spent under the PMGSY during 2024-25 stood against allocated Rs 650 crore. “In light of this enhanced performance, the state government has formally requested the Central Government to double the allocation to Rs 1,300 crore for 2025-26,” he asserted.

Vikramaditya said that the PWD was proactively working on the PMGSY-IV. As part of this, mapping of 1,560 habitations had been completed and 1,115 habitations of these were found to be eligible by the Union Ministry of Rural Development. So far, the ministry had approved 862 habitations, including 102 under stage-I.

Vikramaditya said that following a meeting with the Union Minister for Rural Development on April 30, a high-level team from the National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA) had visited Shimla on May 2 and 3. The team had held detailed discussions with PWD officials and assured them that 247 habitations, which were earlier rejected, would be reconsidered on the case-to-case basis after proper verification, he added.

The PWD Minister said that the state had conveyed to the Central Government that since land was available for 151 of these 247 habitations, these be approved at the earliest. Once the approval process was completed, the state would prepare around 250 detailed project reports (DPRs) covering 1,400 km roads under the PMGSY-IV, he added. He claimed that the work was being carried out in a fast-track mode to ensure timely execution.