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There are a few still alive, who are as old as independent India. Some of them had not even seen a Bus. These villagers drove into 21^st century in 2004 when their village was connected to the rural road network under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). This is the story of many of India’s 600000 villages where modern life has changed nay, arrived at humble homes.

This PMGSY is not an outcome of intellectual discussions or any policy blabber. It was in October 1999 when Nitin Gadkari, a BJP leader called up the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is heard that Mr. Vajpayee asked this Maharashtra MP if there is an over bridge of flyover to connect Bharat with India. Upon this Gadkari shared his experience of connecting 16000 villages including 100 adivasi villages in Melghat in Maharashtra. Since Gadkari had an experience of the construction of India’s most modern Six-lane expressway between Mumbai and Pune, under his belt, he knew the maths. Vajpayee advised Gadkari to head the National Rural Road Development Committee (NRRDC) and it happened for the first time in the history of India a former state minister was advising the Center.

It was this committee which found that 75% of the Indian population lives in 5.89 lakh villages of varying sizes scattered across 3.29 million sq.kms. its findings suggested that every day, 300 pregnant women died as they were not able to reach a health care center in time, Lakhs of children could not reach school during rains and rural incomes gone for toss because agricultural produce could not reach its final markets and perished. Most of this was known but not in such shocking details.

Vajpayee did not wait for any more debates or discussions. He right away kicked off the program. By charging a cess from diesel users to fund network expansion, the modality of a simple funding mechanism, the scheme was launched. In the first phase the NDA government decided to connect villages with 1000 as population (500 in hills, tribal and desert area). With construction of 3,68,000 kms of new roads and upgrading 3,70,000 kms the project required more than 100,000 crore for which instruments like banking and other agencies were roped in to fill the gaps in funding.