The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has proposed a nationwide system to assign a unique code, digital identity and standardised classification to every road within villages
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NEW DELHI — The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has proposed a nationwide system to assign a unique code, digital identity and standardised classification to every road within villages, aiming to improve governance, service delivery, emergency response, and rural infrastructure planning, according to official sources.
The proposed Intra-Village Road Coding and Grading System, which will soon be shared in the public domain for feedback, seeks to create a standardised framework for naming, coding and digitally mapping all internal village roads across the country, sources said.
Officials said while India has developed an extensive rural road network under schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), internal roads and lanes within villages have largely remained undocumented, creating difficulties for ambulances, postal services, government agencies and navigation platforms.
Under the proposed framework, roads inside villages will be categorised into three classes -- Main Roads, Cross Roads, and Other or Connected Roads. Each road will be assigned a unique alphanumeric code linked to its location from state level to village level, sources said.
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The coding structure has been designed to be compatible with existing Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) road codification standards and Local Government Directory (LGD) databases, while duplicate codes will be prevented through validation on PMGSY's Online Management, Monitoring and Accounting System (OMMS), they said.
According to the proposal, digital technologies such as DIGIPIN, developed by the Department of Posts, and Gram Manchitra, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj's geospatial planning platform, will be integrated into the system.
Sources said every road will be tagged with a geospatial identifier and mapped digitally, while signboards carrying QR codes will allow citizens to access information related to road location, maintenance history and navigation details.
The proposal also envisages bilingual signage in local languages and English to improve accessibility for residents, visitors, delivery personnel and emergency responders.
Gram panchayats will serve as the primary authority for identifying, naming and grading roads within their jurisdiction, with annual reviews and audits proposed through gram panchayat development plans (GPDPs), according to the consultation paper.
Officials said the initiative has been conceived as a "whole-of-government" exercise involving the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Posts, National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, state governments and geospatial agencies.
The proposed system is expected to strengthen implementation and monitoring of rural development programmes and infrastructure schemes, by creating a verifiable national database of village roads, sources said.
They said the initiative could also improve transparency in road construction and maintenance, reduce duplication of works across departments, enable last-mile navigation in villages and provide real-time visibility of rural road networks for planners and administrators.
The sources said the Panchayati Raj ministry would soon put the document out for consultation, suggestions from citizens, elected representatives, academics, community organisations and other stakeholders on the proposed classification, coding framework, digital integration and implementation mechanisms before finalising the system.