Abstract
India faces a very tough challenge to provide an adequate road network to its villages under serious constraints of funds. Present planning practices of rural roads mostly are based on ad hoc approaches, which leads to suboptimal utilization of funds. Presented is a user-friendly model for systematic planning of rural road networks that increases the efficiency of available resources for rural roads. The model provides an all-weather road connection from each village to nearby market centers and education centers at the least cost by generating an optimal rural road network. The model is computer based, which facilitates its effective application. It generates an optimal rural road network by using a heuristic approach that minimizes total transportation cost of the network. The model can be used effectively for preparation of master plans of rural roads. The tasks that can be performed by the model include (a) identifying the requirements of fresh road construction; (b) identifying the need for upgrade of an existing road network; (c) selecting appropriate design and construction standards; (d) identifying important missing bridges and missing links from an existing rural road network; and (e) identifying priority links for maintenance in an existing rural road network. Practical applications of the model demonstrate significant advantages over the prevailing practices of rural road planning in India.
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