UPGRADATION PLANNING OF RURAL ROADS IN G.I.S. ENVIRONMENT UNDER PMGSY

INTRODUCTION Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) is the National Level Project started on 25th Dec., 2000. There are 5,86,000 villages scattered all over the country and about 73% of population is living over there. In the certain region of the country almost 100% connectivity is achieved. The traffic is also increasing, hence there is an immediate need for upgradation planning of these roads.

In this study, the planning model for upgradation of rural roads is developed by keeping PMGSY program as the base of the model. The validation of this model is don eon one of the PMGSY road. The model is validated with the help of GIS. For verifying model a database (village and road information system) is also developed. Core network upgradation is done and final map is prepared showing the number of roads need strengthening and widening. Final alternate routes is also worked out.

DEVELOPMENT OF PLANNING MODEL Core Network: The rural road network required for providing the ‘basic access’ to all villages/habitations is termed as core network. The basic access is defined as one all weather road access from each village/habitation to nearby Market Centre and essential places.

Upgradation Upgradation includes strengthining, widening and providing alternative routes. Upgradation requirement is done on the basis of Pavement Condition Index (PCI) value: S. No. Description of Surface Condition PCI 1. Very Good 5 2. Good 4 3. Fair 3 4. Poor 2 5. Very Poor 1

Utility value Utility value of a habitation can be calculated by giving appropriate weightage to: socio economic/infrastructural facility (Health, Education, market etc.) and administrative centre.

PLANING MODEL Planning of rural roads is brodely classified as: Network Planning of roads which emphasis on the connectivity among villages with importance given to socio-economic factors and minimum possible cost. Upgradation of roads which includes strengthening, widening and providing alternative routes.

1. Strengthening of Roads First go for the strengthening of through roads who’s PCI < 2 and type of surface is gravel. After this strengthening of those link routes who’s PCI < 2 and type of surface is gravel.

2. WIDENING AND ALTERNATIVE ROUTES Select the roads whose daily traffic exceed 1000 v/day. Check these routes for widening and selection of alternate separately. Widening: If land is available, find the cost of widening of these routes and if not available than no widening is provided.

Alternate Routes Assumption and methodology for selection of alternate routes: Only one alternative route is provided for selected road. Dead end nodes are only taken up for providing alternative routes. Select all the dead end nodes (Ni) on the link routes connected to that selected road.

Also select that end nodes (Nj) that can be linked to these above nodes so that link route can be converted to through roads. Ni and Nj should lie on one side of the road. The link should not in any case cross the selected road. The link is provided such that the traffic diverted should not again merge with to the selected road as the traffic has to be reduced on these roads.

One of the two dead end nodes (Ni and Nj) must have the population greater than 1000. First select the node (Ni and Nj) which is farther from the market centre and check the distance of this node to the market centre trhough the proposed alternative route.

Find the weightage for all the possibilities of alternative routes by the formula: Wij = (Pi* Pj*) (Ui - Uj) d2

Wij = Weightage Pi and Pj = Population of villages i and j Ui and Uj = Utility value of villages I and j d = distance between village I and j

If Ui ~ Uj = 0 then take this value as 1 Select the route which has the maximum value of Wij Find the cost of construction of that route Compare the cost of widening and new alternative route construction Select that option which has the low cost.

Preparation of GIS database The various data required for the study may be broadly classified under three categories: Village data Rural Road Inventory data Map data

A toposheet of the study area is collected from Survey of India office. This toposheet is registered in GIS software. Various village locations are marked as point features. Existing and new road are marked as line feature. Boundary of the study area is digitized as area feature

1. Village data Following village level information as attribute data is attached to the point feature of different villages: Name of the village. Demographic data. Infrastructural data (Socio economic data of habitants.)

2. Rural Road Inventory Data Following road inventory data is attached to the road network layer as attribute data: Road geometric details: length and x-section. Road pavement condition: whether BT or Gravel surface. Traffic details of that road. PCI value of each road.

2 (a). Additional Data A separate line layer for proposed alternative route is also prepared in which following additional information is stored along with the previous data: Population of to node village and from node village. Utility value of to node village and from node village.

3. Map Data A map of the study area is prepared from the Survey of India toposheet. The database generated in the process can be assessed at any time as per requirement. The application developed can be used to generate attribute query like: Roads having traffic > 1000 veh./day Roads having PCI > 2 etc.

VALIDATION OF PLANNING MODEL A study area is selected on the given map. The study area contains about 50 village with population ranging from 20 to 10,000. Queries are performed on the given attribute data and the results are obtained in form of geographic map of study area. These map shows the proposed alternative routes, strengthening and widening of existing roads etc.

Analysis of Study Area To find out the roads needed for strengthening, an attribute query is carried out on GIS software. Roads having PCI < 2, are taken for strengthening. To find out the roads for widening again an attribute query is carried out Roads having traffic > 1000 veh./day

On the basis of the condition prescribed for planning model, alternative routes are obtained. According to the planning model, one alternate route is chosen for each road obtained after performing the queries and cost calculation. Cost for construction is calculated by inbuilt programme in C++ language with GIS software.

Conclusions The planning of rural roads can be subdivided into two phases. First is the optimal network planning and second phase is the upgradation of roads. Upgradation of planning includes strengthening and widening of roads and provision of alternative routes. As the traffic is increasing on rural roads and 100 percent connectivity has been reached in some areas of country, there is an urgent need of second phase of planning.

On the basis of the analysis, the roads required strengthening are all through roads. GIS is a powerful tool to make quicker analysis and at the same time it maintains the database in a systematic manner. Opting between widening of road and provision of alternate routes on the cost criteria, the cost of the land is the major deciding factor.

A GIS based user – friendly rural road upgradation model has been developed which has the following features: The model is geographically transferable. The improvement of road condition is given due consideration by selecting the road for strengthening based on the value of PCI. The congestion on rural roads is reduced by providing either widening or alternate routes based on construction cost.

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