Road upkeep cost rises for less budgetary allocation

A less-than-required level of budgetary allocation during the last seven years has pushed up 90 per cent the funding needs for overall maintenance of roads and highways throughout the country, official sources said.
The gap between the demand and the budgetary allocation since fiscal year 2007-08, they said, has now raised the demand for reconstruction of many national and regional highways and district roads--partly or totally.
According to the sources, Roads and Highways Department (RHD) placed 95 per ent increased demand during fiscal year 2013-14 than that of the previous FY as the department received only 15 per cent of the requirement.
"This trend had been maintained in the previous six years," said one official, preferring not to be named.
He said the backlog maintenance cost goes up by three to four times if road maintenance of identified area is not done in time.
According to an RHD study, demand of Tk 77 billion was raised for immediate maintenance of roads and highways after reviewing conditions of over 22,000km RHD network during the FY 2013-14.
The overall maintenance demand was, however, placed at Tk 108 billion during the same year. Only Tk 12 billion was allocated, which is 15.94 per cent of the total demand.
The study report, titled Maintenance and Rehabilitation Needs Report 2014, showed that due to the gap between demand and allocation, the department needed to carry overall maintenance of 8,960 kilometres of roads.
Of the total, 30 per cent of the roads would now need reconstruction - partially or totally.
The study found some 1,595km roads would need partial reconstruction while 960 kms full reconstruction in the current fiscal year. The RHD would need Tk 25 billion and Tk 21 billion respectively as the costs.
"If the road reconstruction was done in time, requirement for overall maintenance would be lessened to Tk 11 billion," the official said in the light of the study report done by its HDM circle.
He also said the RHD would then need to maintain only 970 kms of roads.
The RHD conducts the survey of all RHD roads and highways every year during September and December through its network survey vehicle and prepares a report to set the demand for requirements. Priority is put on roads and highways.
Officials said the Planning Section of the RHD placed the demand based on the HDM report but the allocation had so far been maintained on average 15 per cent of the requisite funds.
However, the sources said the maintenance section of the RHD could hardly follow the HDM report to set their priorities due to pressure from different quarters to maintain or repair their part of the roads.
Mostly ministers, Members of Parliament (MPs) cally influential people create pressure on the RHD to spend budgetary allocation in their prescribed roads, they said.
"Fund allocation for maintenance work gets priority in case of those roads for which power shows up," said a source, preferring not to be named.