Bhubaneswar, Aug. 11: The Orissa government plans to build 5,000 kilometres of roads connecting 866 villages under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) during the current financial year.

The Union ministry of rural development has relaxed norms for construction of all-weather connectivity to unconnected villages in 15 integrated action plan districts, namely Balangir, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Sonepur and Sundargarh.

The Orissa government, however, says that more than 95 per cent of the funds received under the PMGSY have been utilised till 31 July, 2011.

Rural development secretary Surendra Nath Tripathy said: “A sum of Rs 8,104.59 crore has been received from the Centre for building roads and bridges out of which Rs 7,723.03 crore (95.29 per cent) have been utilised. With this money, 21,168.49 km of road has been built against the sanctioned length of 29,875.12 km.”

He added: “A total number of 5,470 roads connecting 6,781 villages have been built under the scheme. There has been almost five fold increase in fund utilisation over the last five years.”

While in 2001-02, fund utilisation under the scheme was Rs 36.34 crore, it was Rs 377.37 crore in 2005-06 and Rs 1,924.25 crore in 2010-11.

Villages with a population of 250 and above are eligible for connectivity. The current proposals approved in the meeting are construction of 270 roads covering 1,057.35 km to connect 349 villages in Phase-1 and 266 roads covering 957.70 km to connect 337 villages.

Digitisation of road network in 25 districts has been completed through technical support from the Orissa Space Application Centre.