to the villages, the bigger roads from which these approaches take off may themselves not be black topped or all-weather type. A policy will have to be laid down in this respect. It is suggested that we may also include for improvement and black topping such roads which are necessary on the route from the village to the nearest market centre, primary health centre, school or the Tahsil headquarter. Only then can the connectivity be said to be complete.

For construction of minor bridges, or in cases where a battery of large number of hume pipes of large diameter are necessary, it is possible to save costs by adopting some proven technology. For example, in Maharashtra, a large number of small bridges have been constructed with superstructure of arches constructed out of pre-cast concrete blocks can be cast locally with inexpensive machines by properly trained local people and the cost saving is quite substantial and could run into hundreds of crores on all India basis.

Making imaginative use of locally available material, which might otherwise not meet the required

standards, can also reduce costs of construction. This can be done by proper design of cross sections of the road and adoption of techniques like stabilisation.

Cost reduction would also be achieved by exemption of Local Taxes / Duties / Royalty exemption on Bitumen, Steel, Cement and other construction materials. Import cost of bitumen of the desired grade would also go down drastically due to exemption of import duty and local state and Central taxes and duties.

The present price of bitumen in India is Rs. 11,000 per tonne (inclusive of all taxes) which comprises of a large component on account of excise duty and local taxes like sales tax and octroi apart from the cost of transportation. The present price of imported bitumen is Rs. 4,500 per tonne before duties and taxes. If the taxes, including import duties, involved are eliminated by granting the required exemption on bitumen and other the materials and machinery to be consumed and used for this mission there will be a substantial cost reduction. The economies of scale and change in the method and form of transportation would also provide the required cost reduction and convenience during the implementation phase. The total cost