Percentage of ADP funds for RHD keeps falling

Munima Sultana | Published: April 07, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The yearly development budget for the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) kept declining in terms of percentage over the last three years despite importance attached to development of road infrastructure to spur economic growth.
Officials say it seems the RHD budget under the annual development programme (ADP) was increasing in terms of volume, but in terms of the percentage of ADP it had been decreasing since the fiscal year (FY) 2011-12.
"The demand for new roads and the necessity of widening existing roads to four lanes or more are increasing every year, but the budget remains lower than the requirements," said an official preferring not to be named.
He said the department always was deprived as they hardly got any allocation that could meet the minimum requirements.
It was a regular phenomenon that the RHD was not getting allocations commensurate with the requirements at the field level.
Sources say when the RHD places its requirements of funds based on the requests from the field level, the Planning Commission lowers it further.
According to the RHD, the department's budget for the FY 2010-11 was Tk 36.03 billion, which was 10 per cent of the ADP. But the percentage of RHD's funds in the ADP kept falling in the next three years to stand at 4.3 per cent in the FY 2013-14.
The percentages of RHD's funds in the ADP were 7.07 per cent and 6.23 per cent in FY 2011-12 and FY 2012-13 respectively.
Officials say the ADP size of the current fiscal was Tk 739.89 billion, up from Tk 571.12 billion in the previous fiscal.
According to statistics for 10 years from the FY 2001-02, the RHD received the lowest 13 per cent of funds and the highest 29 per cent in a fiscal during the period under review.
However, sector insiders say the RHD budget has always been squeezed as many projects are taken in political consideration. All the members of parliament (MPs) place at least one road project each.
But construction of new roads and upgradation of the existing ones have become urgent due to the increased volume of traffic in line with the country's average economic growth ofÂ 6.0 per cent.
The country's importance in regional connectivity and its inclusion in the Asian Highway also require expansion of all two-lane roads to four lanes.