More than 80 percent of the habitations in the country have been connected with all-weather roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. This was informed during the review meeting of the scheme chaired by Union Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi yesterday. <br/><br/>He directed senior state officials to speed up execution of rural road projects to achieve full rural connectivity by March,2019. The meeting was attended by Minister of State Ram Kripal Yadav, Secretary, Rural Development, Amarjeet Sinha and senior officials of the Centre and states.<br/>'<br/>The Rural Development Ministry said in a statement that under the scheme, about 1.78 lakh eligible habitations with 500 populations in plain areas and 250 in hilly areas have to be connected by all-weather roads. <br/><br/>At present, about 1.31 lakh habitations have been connected under the PMGSY and another nearly 14,620 habitations have been connected through state government programmes, bringing the total habitations connected to 82 percent, the statement said.