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Rs 6b sought for road maintenance
KATHMANDU, APR 26 -
The Department of Roads has sought a budget of Rs. 6 billion for its annual road maintenance programme to be carried out during the next fiscal year 2010/11. The amount is 198 percent higher than what was provided by the government for the current fiscal year.
Director general of the department Ram Kumar Lamsal said that the maintenance cost had been increasing every year due to the increased focus on road construction and less attention to road maintenance.
"This year, we have demanded Rs. 6 billion to carry out road maintenance activities effectively," he said while addressing a workshop on the annual road maintenance programme.
The department had urged the government to allocate Rs. 5.28 billion for the current fiscal year for maintenance purposes. However, it was provided only 38.2 percent (Rs. 2 billion) of the proposed amount. The budget allocation for periodic and specific maintenance is almost always less than what is needed which is the reason for the increasing backlog of repairs to be done. "We have not been able to carry out the planned maintenance work effectively for 15 years as there is a trend of allocating a low budget," said Hari Om Srivastav, deputy director general at the department. "Now, the concept of performing maintenance is slowly increasing."
During the next fiscal year, the department plans to do periodic maintenance on 1,281 km of roads nationwide with the proposed budget of Rs. 2.16 billion. Under periodic maintenance, any road should be periodically maintained at intervals of five to seven years after it is built to keep it in good condition. The government in the current fiscal year had allocated only 47.43 percent of the total proposed budget of Rs. 1.74 billion for periodic maintenance.
The department has targeted carrying out routine maintenance work on 5,909 km of roads with Rs. 271 million, recurrent maintenance work on 5,392 km of roads with the budget allocation of Rs. 266 million and specific maintenance work with the budget allocation of Rs. 1 billion.
According to the department, it is looking after 9,287 km of the country's strategic road network of which 57 percent is blacktopped, 25 percent unpaved and 18 percent gravelled. Of the total road network, 24 percent is in poor condition due to lack of proper maintenance.
"It has become very urgent to carry out preservation and maintenance of the existing roads than to construct new ones," said Srivastav. He said that the department would forward the proposed budget to the Road Board of Nepal and the concerned government authorities soon.
road maintenance budget
Activity Category Amount
Routine Maintenance Rs. 271.23 million
Recurrent Maintenance Rs. 265.84 million
Periodic Maintenance Rs. 2.16 billion
Emergency Maintenance Rs. 33.15 million
Bio-eng, Road Safety Rs. 65.69 million
Specific Maintenance Rs. 1 billion
Bridge Maintenance Rs. 263.20 million
Upgrading Rs. 809.32 million
Rehabilitation Rs. 1.13 billion
Posted on: 2010-04-27 07:24
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