Twenty-five years of PMGSY: assess its contribution to rural livelihoods and identify the challenges in sustaining its benefits.

The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was launched on 25 December 2000 to give all-weather roads to unconnected rural habitations. By December 2025 it had sanctioned 8,25,114 km and completed 7,87,520 km, about 95% physical progress [1]. It has changed rural livelihoods, but keeping those gains depends on how well the roads are maintained.

Contribution to rural livelihoods

• Farm incomes: all-weather roads link villages to markets and lower transport costs. PIB calls PMGSY a driver of agricultural growth, employment generation and poverty alleviation [1].
• Human capital: easier year-round travel has improved access to schools and health services, so benefits go beyond income [1].
• Inclusion of remote areas: PMGSY-IV (₹70,125 crore, 62,500 km, 25,000 habitations) lowers the population threshold to 250+ in NE, hill and Schedule V tribal areas and to 100+ in LWE districts [2]. This takes connectivity to the hardest-to-reach areas.
• Transparency: OMMAS, GPS tracking and a three-tier quality system have made construction more accountable [1].

Challenges in sustaining benefits

• Maintenance gap: 41% of roads were in poor condition because States did not provide enough funds [3]. The CAG found 21% of completed work was not properly maintained, and only 15 States had a maintenance policy [4].
• Split between Centre and States: the Centre funds construction. After the contractor's five-year maintenance period ends, States must pay for upkeep [5], and new projects often take priority over old roads.
• Poor quality from low bids: contractors who bid unrealistically low use cheaper material, and those roads wear out early [3].
• Hard terrain and security: only 56% of the LWE road project was complete by January 2023, delayed by law-and-order problems, forest clearances and terrain [3].
• Weak data: States did not update OMMAS consistently [4]. Monitoring counts km built, not livelihood outcomes.

Over 25 years, PMGSY has turned connectivity into better market access, services and inclusion, but badly maintained roads can undo those gains. Linking contractor payments to road condition through e-MARG [5], giving States dedicated maintenance funds, and blacklisting defaulting contractors [3] would help protect them. The four-year NRIDA–IIM Kolkata outcome study [6] would add evidence on whether the benefits last. Together, these steps would keep PMGSY on track to deliver the resilient, inclusive infrastructure called for under SDG 9.