The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) is set to undergo a major reshuffle in its organogram to boost the lone highway developer in performance.
The move has been made in the context of the growing demand for road infrastructure across the country.
Officials said the reform is likely to make the RHD more efficient from planning to developing, operating and maintaining highways and expressways.
As planned, they said, the RHD finalised its organogram last week, proposing a rise in the number of wings to 15 with 2.5 per cent more killed and technical hands.
Currently, the department has four wings with 668 posts.
"The RHD is set to see a major reshuffle in 30 years-massive changes in infrastructure design, technology, investment and traffic demand," said an official involved in the process.
He said the RHD saw some petty changes following the Enam Committee's recommendation on the earlier organogram in 1986.
The official said the organogram, now in road transport and bridges ministry, will be effective after approval from ministries concerned, including finance ministry.
As per the prescribed organogram, the RHD proposed to split the development wing into two-national highway wing and expressway and regional connectivity wing.
Besides, a separate wing of national highways has been proposed to maintain and make the existing and newly developed main arteries operational.
The planning and maintenance wing may be divided into four-planning wing, monitoring and internal control wing, road network operation and safety wing and asset management system wing.
The mechanical wing is also likely to have two wings-technical service wing and management service wing.
Officials said the new organogram is meant for overcoming the RHD's limitations, for example, in monitoring developed roads and bridges. The bridge engineering wing has been proposed to carry exclusively the bridge maintenance work.
The RHD has a mandate to build expressway or access control highway under public-private partnership to meet the government's target of implementing 30 per cent development plan from private investment.
The new organogram, however, did not propose any specialised wing to the end. It will be planned and monitored through a circle under the national highway wing that, the RHD official said, was done on the ministry's recommendation.
"We expect a massive change in the performance of the RHD with a lower number of complaints…," said the official.
He said the RHD finalised the demand for 1,559 skilled technical hands to make the new organogram effective.
smunima@yahoo.com