AHMEDABAD: Imagine a village that offers Wi-Fi connectivity, has air-conditioned primary schools equipped with CCTV cameras and cooks preparing midday meals. All the streets in the village have concrete roads, people get chilled mineral water for drinking and there is an independent public transport system.

This dream village, Punsari, exists in Gujarat’s Himmatnagar. The village is now readying for a high-profile visit of the additional secretary of the Union government to study this model so that it can be replicated across 640 districts in India.Additional secretary (rural development) L C Goyal will visit Punsari on Monday and interact with local leaders and villagers to understand what makes the village click when infrastructure development is a challenge in lakhs of villages in the country.Punsari has won national as well as state awards for Best Gram Panchayat in 2011.Sarpanch Himanshu Patel (29) told TOI, “He (Goyal) will study the way we have harnessed state and national level developmental schemes to create infrastructure in the village which rivals the best in any part of the country.” Patel said the visit is prompted by the PMO as there are plans that similar model villages can be recreated – at least one in each district of India.Punsari makes a perfect case study as the village has not benefitted from NRIs and has instead relied solely on funds from central and state-sponsored developmental schemes in the past eight years.The village panchayat pays an annual premium of Rs 25 lakh against insurance for each of the 6,000 villagers who have a cover of Rs 1 lakh and a mediclaim policy of Rs 25,000. The schools have zero dropout rates since 2006 and a reverse osmosis plant supplies 20-litre cans to houses for a token amount of Rs 4.The village panchayat had a capital of Rs 25,000 seven years ago. Today, the deposits have soared to Rs 45 lakh. “The model can be easily replicated in India. It only takes smart planning, dedicated people participation and a non-corrupt system,” says Patel.