Assam: 18% of PMGSY Roads Flagged for Quality Concerns

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: A question mark continues to hang over the quality benchmarks for national highways and rural roads in Assam.

Assam witnessed implementation of several rural road projects under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in the past few years. There are allegations of poor-quality roads constructed under the PMGSY in some of the villages.

National Quality Monitors (NQMs) monitor PMGSY roads during and after construction. NQMs have found that over 18 per cent of their total inspection of roads and bridges constructed under the PMGSY in the state are either unsatisfactory or satisfactory, requiring improvement (SRI). Satisfactory requiring improvement (SRI) is an evaluation grade meaning work or performance meets basic, minimum standards but still needs growth, fine-tuning, or better execution to be truly good.

From January 2021 to the last part of August 2026, NQMs inspected 442 complete road works in the state, tagging 70 of them as 'unsatisfactory' and 24 as 'SRI'. During the period, NQMs inspected 894 ongoing works and tagged 67 of them as 'unsatisfactory' and 36 as 'SRI'. The NQMs also inspected 512 maintenance works during the period and tagged 125 as 'unsatisfactory' and 39 as 'SRI'.

The construction of rural bridges also comes under the PMGSY. During the period from January 2021 to the last part of August 2026, NQMs inspected 395 rural bridge projects and tagged 17 bridges as 'unsatisfactory' and 36 bridges as 'SRI'.

The NQMs inspected 2,243 works altogether during the period and graded 414 works (over 18 per cent) as either 'unsatisfactory' or 'satisfactory requiring improvement'.

NQMs, the highest of the three-tier PMGSY quality monitoring mechanism, are independent engineers appointed by the National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA), under the Ministry of Rural Development.

The primary aim of the PMGSY is to provide unrestricted, all-weather road connectivity to eligible unconnected habitations in rural areas as a key strategy for poverty alleviation and socio-economic transformation.

Core Objectives of PMGSY in Assam Targeted Rural Connectivity: The chief objective is to link eligible unconnected habitations. In plain regions of India, the population threshold is 500+, but for Assam and the North-Eastern region, habitations with a population of 250 or more (based on census data) are eligible for all-weather road connectivity.

This quality benchmark is an indicator to the engineers and contractors concerned in Assam to improve the quality of their works. 

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