A.C. Sama (Dr.), Scientist I. C. Aggarwal, Scientist Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi

ABSTRACT

Development of rural roads brings multiple socio-economic benefits to the rural areas which form a strong base of the National economy and it is a powerful instrument for the socio-economic transformation of the villages. Awareness of these benefits and their evaluation plays a pivotal role for providing all weather rural roads. The quickly visible of these benefits are increased mobility, increased productivity, saving in cost of transportation of men and material and speedier flow of commodities beside, changes in the life style. Some of the significant benefits and factors for their evaluation are presented in the paper.

Introduction

Rural roads provide basic inputs for all-round socio-economic development of the rural areas. The provision and construction of roads and road links brings multiple socio-economic benefits to the rural areas and results in forming a strong backbone for the agro-based economy. The importance of the rural roads has been emphasised in various plan documents. In the current Vllth Five Year Plan also it has been planned to provide all weather road connections to all the villages with a population of 1500 or above and 50 per cent of the villages having a population of between 1000-1500 persons. To accomplish this task construction of nearly 1.30 lakhs kilometres of road length with an estimated cost of Rs. 3100 crores (in order to provide all weather road connection to additional 25, 000 villages under the above criteria) has been proposed during the plan period (1985- 1990). Moreover the importance of providing rural roads can hardly be undermined in the context of our economic and social goals. The impact of providing rural roads accrue in various ways resulting in numerous economic and social benefits- quickly visible and quantifiable as well as indirect and non-quantifiable; some of these benefits and changes are briefly described in the following paras.

Impact and Benefits

Break of Isolation: Roads play an important role for overcoming the isolation of the villages. It provides a much needed opportunity for the village population to come in contact with other groups of the society, which in turn inculcates in them a sense of being a part of national main stream in its prosperity and progress. The areas here-to-fore inaccessible become easy to reach for administrative and welfare agencies particularly in tunes of natural calamities and for relief operations whenever needed.

Changes in Travel Patterns: With the provision of all weather road connection bullock cart the traditional mode of rural transport is replaced by the motorised vehicles -the bus, scooter and truck, etc. The mobility level of the persons is increased and the people are lured to make social visits and recreational journeys to more distant places. The provision of rural roads results in the speedier movement of men and material betweel1 producing centre and market-place. The surplus of the village produce can be conveniently transported at a cheaper Cost of transportation. It also ensures the farmer for the remunerative prices for their products and perishable Commodities like milk, vegetables, eggs, etc. The inhabitants also acquire other vehicles like cycle, scooter, tractor, etc. The traffic on the road link increases.

Change in Living Patterns: The construction of rural road connections in its wake changes the life pat- terns also by bringing awareness of the modern means of living like cooking, dressing, recreation, etc. It infuses new ideas regarding the latest technological development in methods of farming, agro-industries, health care, etc.

It also results in better understanding of each other ideas and thus brings a change in attitudes. The development of rural road connections creates availability of opportunity for exchange of ideas and brings qualitative change in tl1e pattern of living.

Education Level: The connection of the villages to the road network results in selling up more Scl1ools- primary and middle level and increases the educational standard of the inhabitants of rural community. Not only the village students find it easier to go to their place of education, but good and efficient teaching staffs is also attracted to these village schools and thus the literacy level is increased and educational standards are improved.

Health Care: Development of rural roads to connect the villages with the highway and nearby towns provides facilities to establish more health centres and dispensaries where the staff can function more effectively and attend to more number of persons by increasing their area of operation. This better health standard in- creases the production, and creates better appreciation of family planning programme. With the good connection of roads, more efficient and qualified doctors are also lured to work in the rural areas.

Increase in Agriculture: The cultivators in the village will be able to produce more agricultural product by way of generated incentives for marketing their produce at low transportation cost and importing the fertilizer, manures and seeds at cheaper rate due to; the reduced cost of transportation to the village. Thus the productivity of agriculture which is a dominant sector of our economy is increased. All weather road connection also reduces the time of transporting the perishable products like milk, vegetables, poultry products, etc. and ensures a remunerative price for such commodities throughout the year to the producer and a regular supply to the consumers. "

Industrial Benefit: The availability of road links provides opportunity to the entrepreneurs for setting up industrial units particularly the agro-industries which are based on the locally available raw materials. It reduces the cost of transportation of raw materials from the outside and marketing of finished products. It reduces the cost of production and an entrepreneur can draw better return on the investment. The production of finished products is increased and the same can be available at a comparatively cheaper rate to the consumer also. Good road connection also helps industries in get- ting other factors of production like labour, capital, etc. at a cheaper rate and in time. 13esides increase in the industrial production, more development opportunity are provided to the local population as well as to the society.

Increase in Access to Administrative Machin- ery: Impact of rural roads' is also felt in the public life as it helps tile government in providing more effective public security by way of access to administrative, law d lid order machinery and welfare organisations.

Employment Potential: Another major impact of rural roads manifests in providing employment. The construction anti maintenance of roads is itself employment oriented. It generates employment within its own sector i.e., road and road transport, It also opens new avenues within tile rural area by setting up more' & new industrial units, and other infrastructural facilities like irrigation. electrification, & other utility services, Another outcome of this impact is reflected in the check of migration of rural folk to towns and cities and thus relieving the population pressure in urban areas.

Cultural Change: The development of roads breaks the cultural barriers among the communities by bringing them together more frequently for interaction, understanding and exchange of ideas, Thus the cultural reservations are broken and acculturation takes place.

Other Benefits: They are more of intangible nature like feeling of a sense of security I better outlook, change in attitudes, knowledge of new technology, social contacts, etc,

Disbenefits

Besides tile above, there are some disadvan- tages also which of course are not very significant but may be mentioned here. They include road traffic accidents and hazy atmosphere by automobiles, air and noise pollution, loss of scenic beauty, loss of seniti-mental attachment, by losing of ownership of land due to its acquisition for road construction, highway crimes & robberies, increase in risk level due to traffic on roads. The development of roads also involves increase in oil/diesel consumption which is dependent on foreign exchange component.

Parameters for the Evaluation of Impact of Rural Roads

For the evaluation of impact of roads the following parameters are considered important:

Agricultural Production:

• Increase in the cultivated area
• Increase in the agricultural produce
• Saving in the cost of production of the existing produce as well as for the accrued additional produce
• Marketability of surplus produce percentage of surplus taken to mandis/wholesale market
• Reduction in cost of transportation of surplus produce
• Increase in the production of dairy products
• Increase in the area .under cash crops

(ii) Industrial Production:

• Number of industrial units
• Value of the produce per unit of investment
• Saving in the cost of industrial production
• Size of the industry (average number of persons employed/unit)
• Percentage of local rural population employed

(iii) Travel Pattern-Changes:

• Mobility level (percentage of person making jour- neys)
• Purpose of travel (social, work, education, etc.)
• Change in travel modes
• Percentage of trip by mechanised modes of transportation
• Percentage of trips to places outside the district -Trip lead/length
• Level of vehicle ownership
• Travel cost
• Travel time saved

(iv) Education Development:

• Percentage of literacy
• Percentage of literacy among females
• Number of students per school/educational unit -Percentage of school age population going to city for higher education
• Percentage of trips for education
• Percentage of teachers in the schools commuting from outside areas
• Percentage of population participating in adult education programme
• Percentage of students in the school corning from other places/nearby villages etc.

(v) Changes in the Living Patterns:

• Rate of migration (reduction in the rate of migration to urban area)
• Percentage of workers commuting to towns for work/back home
• Percentage of travel to social visits
• Percentage of travel for recreation
• Percentage of households having electric connections
• Average electricity consumption/household
• Percentage of households using kerosene oil
• Average kerosene oil consumption/household
• Average number of earners/household
• Average income per house hold
• Number of families below poverty line
• Indebtness – number of families indebted

(vi)HealthCare:

• Number of health centres/dispensaries per 1000 population
• Number of patients visiting dispensary
• Percentage of patients coming from outside for treatment
• Percentage of families participating in family planning
• Percentage of medical staff coming from outside to the health units
• Percentage of cases sent to outside hospitals

(vii)Employment Generated:

• Employment in construction and maintenance roads
• Employment in rural road transport
• Employment in allied work, road work etc

Disbenefits

Road Accident

• Number of accidents
• Cost of accidents

Highway Robbery

• Number of robberies
• Number of persons affected

Magnitude of Litigation

• Number of litigation cases taken to court Expenditure of litigation.

Pollution and Other Effects

• Air pollution
• Noise pollution
• Risk level
• Loss of landscaping
• Loss of oceanic beauty
• Loss of sentimental attachment for land
• Diesel consumption
• Diesel consumption per unit
• Value of diesel consumed
• Foreign exchange component invested

Some Quick Visible Imapcts and Benefits

Changes in the travel pattern and economic benefits are some of the impacts of the rural roads. The provision of rural roads results in increased mobility level, use of rnechanised mode of transportation, speedier movement of passengers and goods, increased share of travel of journeys for social visits and educational purposes, reduction in travel cost. The direct economic benefits which can be evalu- ated in monetary terms are the increase in agricultural produce, dairy products, industrial products, saving in travel times and reduction of cost of transportation. The other immediate impact is the employment generation of the provision and construction of roads. A schematic approach flow of activities, to study these impact is shown in Fig. 1.

Consideration for Smaller Villages

Even after achieving the targets of the Seventh Five Year Plan document to connect 100% villages having 1500 or more population and 50% of village having population between 1000-1500 with all weather road links, majority of the villages with a population less than 1000 persons whose number was about 3. 611akhs at the beginning of the Seventh Five Year Plan would still remain without the road. Claims of small villages for providing road links should not be ignored simply be- cause of population criteria but level of existing activities and potential for social development should also form a basis for providing road links to these areas.

Acknowledgements

The Authors are thankful to the Director, Central Road Research Institute for the permission to contribute this paper for the Seminar on "Roads and Road Transport in Rural Areas".

References

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