The World Bank is building roads in India’s villages to raise rural incomes and improve people’s access to health and education services. Rural roads projects are ongoing in 6 states - Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Assam. Building rural roads has been found to have the maximum impact on poverty:

Rural incomes rise

- Incomes in connected villages typically rise between 50 - 100% on average.
- Better access to market towns enables farmers to cut out middlemen and fetch a better price for their produce.
- With easier access to inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, average crop yields rise.
- Farmers also have incentives to diversify into higher value cash crops and increase the intensity of cultivation.
- Shorter travel times and lower transportation costs minimize the spoilage of perishable produce.
- As agricultural earnings rise, wage rates increase, and rural labor finds more work.
- Easier connectivity also encourages rural people to seek work in nearby towns during the offseason in farming.
- Greater connectivity helps improve the quality of rural life and raises land prices by some 60% to 80%, on average.
- Increased access to credit lead to wider economic activities in the rural areas.

Rural people become healthier and lives are saved

- Pregnant women have easier access to prenatal and postnatal care, and can reach health centers in time for deliveries, especially difficult ones.
- Lives are saved as seriously ill rural people can reach health centers quickly and easily.
- Medical personnel can also access the rural areas more easily to provide basic healthcare and immunizations services.