Centre plans unique digital codes for every intra-village road across India

Published 18 June 2026 · india

The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has proposed a nationwide system to give every road within villages a unique code, digital identity and standardised classification

The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has proposed a nationwide system to give every road within villages a unique code, digital identity and standardised classification, official sources said. The plan is aimed at improving governance, service delivery, emergency response and rural infrastructure planning. The proposed Intra-Village Road Coding and Grading System will soon be placed in the public domain for feedback. It seeks to create a standardised framework for naming, coding and digitally mapping all internal village roads across the country, sources said. Read Full Story Officials said that while India has built an extensive rural road network under schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, internal roads and lanes within villages have largely remained undocumented.

This, they said, has created difficulties for ambulances, postal services, government agencies and navigation platforms. Under the proposed framework, roads inside villages will be placed in three categories -- Main Roads, Cross Roads, and Other or Connected Roads. Each road will get a unique alphanumeric code linked to its location from the state level to the village level, sources said. The coding structure has been designed to work with existing PMGSY road codification standards and Local Government Directory databases, while duplicate codes will be prevented through validation on PMGSY's Online Management, Monitoring and Accounting System. According to the proposal, digital tools 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 with QR codes will allow citizens to access details related to road location, maintenance history and navigation. The proposal also provides for bilingual signboards in local languages and English to improve accessibility for residents, visitors, delivery personnel and emergency responders. Gram panchayats will be the primary authority for identifying, naming and grading roads within their areas, with annual reviews and audits proposed through gram panchayat development plans, according to the consultation paper. Officials described the initiative as a "whole-of-government" exercise involving the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Posts, Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, state governments and geospatial agencies.