The Indian government and World Bank has recently signed a $500 million agreement to provide additional financing for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) Rural Roads Project which will build 7,000 km of climate resilient roads, of which 3,500 km will be constructed using green technologies. To date, it has invested over $1.8 billion in loans and credits mostly in the economically weaker and hill states across North India – Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, said Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Sameer Kumar Khare, adding that adequate maintenance of the existing 4.6 million km of road network is emerging as a major challenge. Many parts of the existing road network are either vulnerable to or have already suffered damage from climate induced events such as floods, high rainfall, sudden cloud bursts and land-slides. Improving road conditions alone will result on an average in direct savings of 2.68 million tons annually in GHG emissions and minimize the annual losses of about $9 billion in the road asset value and an equal amount by way of high vehicle operating costs, he claimed.
