The backlog in funding need for maintenance work on the country's road network has increased to 315 per cent this fiscal year in the absence of required budgetary allocation in the last fiscal year, according to a report of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD).
In the last fiscal year, it was 255 per cent.
The Highway Development and Management (HDM) report for the upcoming fiscal year (FY), 2021-22, which has been made available on the RHD website, assessed the need for maintenance work for the fiscal year at Tk 156.06 billion, as it found 16.26 per cent of its surveyed road network either in a poor or bad or very bad condition.
In the previous report, the budgetary requirement for FY 21-22 was put at Tk 37.55 billion. But because of the funding gap, the backlog in requirements climbed to 315 per cent.
The new report, prepared based on a survey conducted on 18,473.67 kilometres of paved roads from November 2020 to March 2021, found that 64.97 per cent of them were in a good condition and 18.76 per cent in a fair condition.
The data of the survey showed that the condition of district roads was in a worse condition than the national and regional highways.
In the last fiscal year 65.03 per cent district roads were in a good condition, the percentage came down to 61.53 this time.
Brahmanbaria topped the bad road condition list, followed by Narsingdi, Moulvibazar, Narayanganj, Laxmipur and Chandpur.
The demand for fund was set at Tk 146.22 billion in the current fiscal year to do both regular and periodical maintenance work. But the RHD allotted Tk 23 billion for the purposes.
The HDM unit of RHD forecasts yearly budgetary demand for overall maintenance work on the national and regional highways and roads under RHD's network every year by conducting a roughness survey.
Since the HDM survey being conducted from 2004, the demand has never matched the allotment.
The maintenance backlog is always showing an upward trend due to not getting the required budget since the first year of the projection as the Finance Division allots the budget for this purpose before the HDM report is ready, officials have said.
However, sources have said the RHD always places lower demand than the HDM projection
The tradition of backlog is likely to continue into the upcoming FY as RHD has already sought Tk 43.69 billion that includes revenue budget.
The HDM report for FY 2021-22 projected the funding need at Tk 156.06 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. If the whole amount was allotted, the funding requirements would fall to Tk 34.58 billion in FY 2022-23, Tk 26.12 billion in FY 2023-24, Tk 23.79 billion in FY 2024-25 and Tk 18.70 billion in FY 2025-26. The new report put the funding need for immediate maintenance work at Tk 77.12 billion.
smunima@yahoo.com