Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 25 (IANS) The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has proposed to double the target of houses in rural areas to be built across the country under its flagship Bharat Nirman programme, according to the Economic Survey for this fiscal laid in parliament Thursday.
“Under phase-I of the rural housing component of Bharat Nirman, 60 lakh houses were envisaged through the Indira Awaas Yojana all over the country during the four years from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Against this target, 71.76 lakh houses were constructed with an expenditure of Rs 21,720.39 crore (Rs 217.2 billion),” said the survey, adding it was now “proposed to double this target and to construct 120 lakh houses during the next five-year period starting from the current year 2009-10″.

Launched in 2005-06 for building infrastructure and basic amenities in rural areas, Bharat Nirman has six components - rural housing, irrigation potential, drinking water, rural roads, electrification and rural telephony.

“During the current financial year, as against the target of construction of 40.52 lakh, 18.57 lakh houses have been constructed so far,” the survey said.

“Under Bharat Nirman for rural water supply, Rs.4,098 crore in 2005-06, Rs.4,560 crore in 2006-07, Rs.6,441.69 crore in 2007-08 and Rs.7,276.29 crore in 2008-09 have been utilised. In 2009-10, a budgetary provision of Rs.8,000 crore has been made out of which Rs.5,669.88 crore has been utilised,” the survey said.

It further said that up to December 2009, a total length of about 250,554 km of roads has been completed under the Prime Minister’s Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) at a cumulative expenditure of Rs.59,800 crore.