New Delhi, Sep 15 - India will have over 146,000 km of new roads connecting thousands of villages across the country by 2010-11, Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi said Tuesday.

Giving details of the progress of his ministry in the last quarter and future targets, Joshi told reporters here: 'On the basis of verification from the states, 54,648 habitations would be connected and the road length will be 146,185 km.'

The minister said the work on this was already in advanced stages and up to March this year, 31,924 habitations had already been connected.

He said this was as part of the prime minister's ambitious Bharat Nirman programme to improve rural infrastructure in the country. The rural roads programme is called Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (Prime Minister's Rural Roads Scheme).