Hyderabad|India|January'2010: “India will be developed only when its villages are developed”, said Sri Pradeep Jain,Minister of State for Rural Development at the inaugural session of PIARC(Permanent International Association of Road Congress) International Seminar on Sustainable Maintenance of Rural Roads at NAC campus, Hyderabad.

He said that PMGSY (Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Programme) is the largest program that has ever been implemented in our country with different habitations and climatic conditions. He also said that to eradicate poverty and other social and economic problems the Hon’ble Prime Minister has introduced ‘Bharat Nirman Yojana’- scheme under which various programmes are being implemented for development of the country. PMGSY is one of the programme under the yojana. He also said that development of roads will lead to development of rural areas.

“This is a unique programme which vastly improves rural road connectivity leading to over all prosperity and better quality living” said Sri B. Satyanarayana, Hon’ble Minister for Panchayat Raj. He also said that for effective implementation of the PMGSY programme, a highly focused project oriented approach has been setup to speed up works including sanction of new posts of Engineers and strengthening quality control wings.

The two-day seminar was organized to provide a common platform for practitioners to share experiences and deliberate the issues and challenges associated with planning, provision and maintenance of rural roads in a sustainable way. The seminar broadly covers the PMGSY Programme, sustainability accessibility and planning and development of rural road network, implementation of sustainable maintenance, community participation and also hold panel discussions.

Sri M.V.P.C.Sastri, Principal Secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh, Sri Shyam Babu, Engineer-in-chief, Sri Prabha Kant Katare, Director, NRRDA, Mr.Jean Francois Corte, Secretary General of World Road Association and Delegates from 20 countries and from Indian states have participated in the seminar.
 

Reachout's News Bureau
January' 2010