Rural Transportation: A study of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in Assam Konch Upen Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Dhemaji College, Dhemaji, India Online published on 6 August, 2014. Abstract A well developed transport and communication contributes to a great extent towards serving the social needs and providing basic infrastructure for overall socio-economic development of a particular region. If agriculture and industries are regarded as the body and bones of economy, the transport and communication constitute the artery and nerves which help in the circulation of men and materials. Considering the significance of transportation in rural areas, right from the inception of Five Year Plans, the Government of India (GoI) has initiated as many as programmes from time to time to improve rural connectivity through massive government investment in various schemes and in this context, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is one of them. In Assam, the PMGSY was implemented in 2000–01 throughout the state with a lot of enthusiasm and initiative. During 2000–01 to 2009–10, 8508 km. of rural road, 615 numbers of RCC bridges and 4053 numbers of villages of 1000+ habitations had already been completed under the programme. The total expenditure was Rs. 3193 crore which was 93.30 per cent of the total sanctioned amount. As such, based on both primary as well as secondary sources, this paper attempts to examine the performances of PMGSY in providing rural connectivity in Assam. The achievements in this regard have both the success and failure. The most encouraging aspects of implementation of PMGSY in Assam were that 53.48 per cent of the total sanctioned road was completed and 66.42 per cent of the total numbers of targeted villages had already been connected under PMGSY during the reference period. However, 63.50 per cent of the total sanctioned bridges have yet to be completed. The study shows that the implementation of PMGSY in Assam has a better sign towards its success. It has a positive impact on rural transportation in Assam. Of course, certain changes are still required in government plans and programme to fulfil its objectives. Top Keywords Rural Transportation, PMGSY, Rural Connectivity, Roads, Communication. Top |