Roads Dept seeks Rs 7.66b to maintain strategic roads
KATHMANDU, JUN 09 -
The Department of Roads has asked the government to allocate Rs 7.66 billion in the next budget for its road maintenance programme. The funds will be used to improve more than 8,000 km of road s under the strategic road network (SRN) in fiscal 2013-14.
The department presents its estimated budget requirement by calculating a specific size before the start of each fiscal year. However, the government has been regularly providing less than the department’s request citing lack of funds. Last year, the government earmarked Rs 2.71 billion against the Rs 8.34 billion demanded by the department. Normally, the government focuses on routine and recurrent maintenance work. Resources for other major maintenance work including periodic and backlogged projects, reconstruction, rehabilitation and upgrading are allocated on a low priority basis.
“Periodic, specific maintenance and road rehabilitation have not received the attention of the government which ultimately increases the backlog of maintenance work and expenses,” said Kailash Kumar Shrestha, senior divisional engineer of the department. He added that the department was getting funds for routine and recurrent road improvement activities as per its demand.
Out of the total budget request, Rs 3 billion has been planned to be spent on routine and recurrent maintenance. Dan Kumar Shakya, engineer at the Maintenance Division of the department, said that most of resources requested were for rehabilitation and reconstruction work. “We have been assured a budget ceiling of Rs 4 billion for road maintenance for the next fiscal as the spending is less in the current fiscal year,” he added. Periodic maintenance is carried out every five to seven years, while reconstruction and rehabilitation is done based on the condition of the road . The department stated that the total budget requirement for the next fiscal was lower than last year as donor agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank were providing funds for rehabilitation in some road projects.
The department is responsible for keeping the country’s 14,488 km of road s under the SRN in good condition to ensure safe travelling. Lack of sufficient funds, overloaded vehicles and poor quality of maintenance work have been cited as the major reasons behind the poor condition of Nepal’s highways. An official at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport said that the condition of the road s would not improve until the government focuses on maintenance and stops giving money for local road s under pressure from political party leaders.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
