SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 2 of 99

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

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Which government initiative focuses on improving the road infrastructure in rural areas of India?

(a)Bharatmala Pariyojana
(b)Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)
(c)National Highways Development Project (NHDP)
(d)Setu Bharatam Programme

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was launched on 25 December 2000 under the Ministry of Rural Development.

Its aim is all-weather road connectivity for unconnected villages, the rural-road focus the stem describes → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Bharatmala Pariyojana — Bharatmala Pariyojana is a national-highway programme of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, built around economic corridors, feeder routes and border and coastal roads, not village roads.
(c)
National Highways Development Project (NHDP) — The NHDP, launched in 1998, upgraded national highways such as the Golden Quadrilateral. Bharatmala later subsumed it, and neither was a rural-road scheme.
(d)
Setu Bharatam Programme — Setu Bharatam, launched on 4 March 2016, builds railway over- and under-bridges to free national highways of level crossings. It is a highway-safety scheme, not a rural one.

Concept

India's road schemes divide by the class of road. National highways sit with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, which runs the NHDP, Bharatmala and Setu Bharatam.

Rural roads sit with the Ministry of Rural Development, which runs PMGSY. The scheme targets habitations with no all-weather road: 500 or more people in the plains, 250 or more in hill, tribal and desert areas.

All three distractors are national-highway programmes of one ministry, so matching the ministry to the class of road settles the question.

Key facts

PMGSY was launched on 25 December 2000 under the Ministry of Rural Development.
PMGSY connects eligible habitations of 500+ people in the plains and 250+ in hill, tribal and desert areas.
The National Highways Development Project began in 1998 and was later subsumed into Bharatmala Pariyojana.
Setu Bharatam was launched on 4 March 2016 to make national highways free of railway level crossings.

Study next

Other Ministry of Rural Development schemes: MGNREGA and PMAY-GraminBharatmala Pariyojana's corridor types: economic corridors, feeder routes, border and coastal roadsThe Golden Quadrilateral and the North–South and East–West corridors

Common traps

Picking Bharatmala because Bharat sounds all-India: it builds national highways, and village roads sit with PMGSY.
Reading Setu Bharatam as a rural bridge scheme: its bridges replace railway level crossings on national highways.

Here the scheme is identified from a one-line purpose, with three national-highway programmes as distractors.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: General Policy — all 308 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.