Question : TRANSPORT FACILITIES IN RURAL AREAS

(a) whether a meeting of the State Road Secretaries was recently held to discuss the transport facilities in rural areas, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether any detailed programme has been chalked out by the Union Government in consultation with the State Governments in this regard;

(c) if so, the details thereof along with the proposals submitted for the consideration of Union Government; and

(d) the steps taken or being taken by the Government in this regard and also to give better transport facilities in tier II and tier III cities during the said period?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS (SHRI KRISHANPAL GURJAR)

(a) No, Madam.

(b) No, Madam.

(c) Does not arise in view of (a) & (b) above.

(d) At the behest of Planning Commission, a Sub-group on State Road Transport Undertakings under the ‘Working Group on Road Transport Sector’ for formulation of Twelfth Five Year Plan, was constituted by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in the year 2011.The Sub-group recommended to launch a special scheme with the aim of increasing connectivity in rural areas through Public Private Partnership mode/ State Road Transport Undertakings. Accordingly, a pilot project was prepared and it was decided to implement it in three districts each in the States of Rajasthan and Assam during 2013-14. However, no proposal, as envisaged in the pilot project, was received from Governments of Rajasthan & Assam.

As per information made available by Ministry of Urban Development, 15485 buses during year 2009 were sanctioned under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), and under the transition phase of JnNURM, 12000 additional buses were also sanctioned to the mission cities / all the cities / urban agglomeration.