Dead end for rural roads in Punjab

THE Centre’s decision to scrap rural road projects worth over Rs 800 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY-III) has delivered a severe blow to Punjab’s infrastructure ambitions. These projects, crucial for rural connectivity, were shelved due to delays in execution. This setback not only halts infra development but also undermines the socio-economic mobility of the state’s rural population. Punjab’s road network woes are not new. From national highway expansions to rural road upgrades, projects worth thousands of crores remain stalled, often because of land acquisition hurdles, inadequate coordination between agencies and bureaucratic inertia. In reply to an unstarred question in Parliament recently by Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has informed that over a dozen highway projects valued at