The task of providing an adequate rural road network to cater for the needs of villages in developing countries is not easy. Apart from the shortage of funds, a major problem is the lack of proper planning. In the present scenario of limited financial resources, it is necessary to plan all the rural road development activities in a comprehensive, integrated and coordinated manner so that at any time budget allocations are optimally utilised. One of the constraints in developing scientific rural road planning is the lack of a database on rural travel characteristics. So there has been a long-felt need to study the trip characteristics of rural areas and accordingly develop a planning model suitable for the needs of developing countries. This paper presents the results of a rural area survey, the biggest conducted so far in India, and the Facility Based Rural Road Network Planning (FBRNP) Model based on this survey. The paper also shows the application of the model in a typical rural area of India. (a).
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