Ramshackle road repairs need Tk 211.48 billion in five years

Needs assessment by a government agency figures out a demand for Tk 211.48 billion to mend and maintain ramshackle roads over next five years.

Officials said a survey sponsored by the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) found roads and highways of a long stretch -- measuring some 9022 kilometres at district level alone -- wrecked mainly because of run of heavy-duty vehicles without necessary maintenance.

They said the survey, however, didn't include status of the roads damaged in prolonged floods and incessant rain as it was done during February-May period of last year.

RHD officials said the cost stated in the survey also didn't take into account the losses incurred for allowing excessive load against recently-permitted axles on national highways.

"This is to break the backbone of the country's main arteries," said one official, indicating a sheer neglect of necessary road maintenance.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges in its 41st National Road Advisory Council meeting on December 14 allowed four to five tonnes of more load against allowable per-axle (2 wheels)-weight limit to goods containers.

According to a non-gazette notification issued on December 18, excess limit of 35 tonnes against 30 tonnes for three-axle containers and 44- tonne limit against 40 tonnes for 4-axle containers will be effective until March 15.

Sources said RHD's burden on account of overall maintenance needs altogether could mount to an all-time high.

The developers of national roads and highways has long been facing backlog due to mismatch of demand for overall maintenance work against budget allocations.

The Highway Development Management (HDM) unit of the RHD carries out survey every year excluding the ongoing works and works done previously. It assesses the needs for periodical, regular, partial reconstruction and full reconstruction during the survey.

The latest HDM survey was done on 16,620 kilometres (kms) of road during February-May last year. It traced 40 per cent of road networks in bad-to-poor states.

Among the national highways, regional highways and zilla roads surveyed, conditions of zilla roads measuring 9022 kms are very bad and maximum of the funds will be needed for their maintenance purposes.

Of the national highways, road condition in Khulna zone is among worst, followed by health of Chittagong and Rangpur roads.

Of the total demand assessed until 2020-21, a king's ransom of Tk 124.75 billion is earmarked for the first year that begins with care for lots of ruptures of the roads.

Officials said if the quoted amount is allotted in the first year for planned maintenance purposes, the department's needs for subsequent years will come to Tk 29.44 billion, Tk 25.14, Tk 19.44 and Tk 12.68 billion respectively.

But the study assessed nearly 45 per cent (Tk 70 billion) need for partial and total reconstruction works in the first year. Out of 21000km roads, RHD officials said, life of more than 80 per cent is over.

"Even during the construction of the four lanes of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, reconstruction of old two-lane roads was not done," said the RHD official.

The department estimated damage to 1177.09km roads during the floods and rains from August to October. The officials said they had already placed a demand for an additional Tk 9.66 billion for long-term maintenance work of these damaged roads in the revised budget for the fiscal year 2017-18.

The department was allotted Tk 18.04 billion in the current fiscal year.

Chief Engineer Hasan Ibne Alam said the HDM survey is done to get an idea of the condition of the country's road network during the survey period. But, he added, circumstance changes for many reasons.

RHD officials claim that the damages to be faced by the department for allowing overloading are uncountable as the damage done could break the backbone of Bangladesh road network.

"When backbone of a person is damaged, he or she is not able to take his or her allowable load," he said to state, metaphorically, the predicament of the roads for overload.

An official of HDM said the survey is done according to prescribed form and in a curtained time. "So it cannot be accurate or timely, and RHD always remains behind the real situation," he told the FE.

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