IND: Rural Roads Sector II Investment Program
Community Participation Frameworks
The Rural Road Sector II Investment Program involves the construction and upgrading of a total 30,000 km of rural roads in the states of Assam, Orissa and West Bengal. The program forms part of the nationally popular program called Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Program or PMGSY), which started in 2000, and aims to provide connectivity to hitherto unconnected villages and promote access to economic opportunities and social services, including increased agricultural incomes and employment/trading opportunities for the local villagers. Under the PMGSY, the existing revenue tracks are taken up for construction. The available width of the existing tracks is not always sufficient to accommodate the proposed improvements, as a result requiring additional land. However, the extent of impacts on land, structures and livelihood sources is expected to be minimal, as the road improvements are generally carried out along the existing tracks. Additional land required for road improvement under the PMGSY will be secured through voluntary donation by the land/asset owners.
To ensure that donation is voluntary and the negative social and economic impacts due to the project will be avoided or minimized, a Community Participation Framework has been prepared by the respective SRRDAs which establishes guidelines supplemental to the current PMGSY guidelines for community consultation, detailing the procedural steps and requirements to be followed for all subprojects to be financed by ADB loans to be provided under the Investment Program. The community consultation process under this Framework for subproject preparation will result in a set of documents that will collectively serve as a plan to implement mitigation measures for the perceived likely negative impacts of each subproject.
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