The number of small roads having low economic viability has shot sharply in recent years due to mounting pressure from political leaders.

The rise in construction of small roads has also affected construction of major roads as roads technician have to give significant time for the construction of small roads as well.

Officials at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW) said demands for small roads have almost doubled to around 20,000 for coming fiscal year as compared to the demands recorded in the last fiscal year.

“Politicians, especially members of parliament, are frequenting MoPPW and National Planning Commission (NPC) to bring development programs like small roads in their respective constituencies and hometowns. The trend of making demands for roads to appease local people rather than keeping in view the economic viability has sharply gone up since the last couple of years,” Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, joint secretary of the MoPPW, told myrepublica.com.

Sitaula said the government had selected 1,300 of the total of 10,000 roads demanded during the current fiscal year. “Though we have received demands for more than 15,000 small roads, we aren´t in a position to select more than 3,000 roads for the coming fiscal year,” Sitaula said.

Construction of about 2,000 small roads is going on across the country.

“Increasing construction of small roads without gauging their economic viability has not only misused funds from state coffer but is also keeping road technicians such as engineers and assistant engineers unnecessarily busy,” said Sitaula.

He also said rising number of road projects across the country have invited the shortage of road technicians. “Given the number of roads, only three engineers are available to monitor 80 roads. This shows the extent of manpower shortage in road projects,” he added.

MoPPW has allocated Rs 950 million for the construction of 2,000 roads, 700 of which were continued from previous fiscal year, in the current fiscal year. Likewise, Ministry of Local Development has allocated Rs 55 million for the construction of 200 small roads during the current fiscal year.

In 2008/09, MoPPW had selected 650 small road projects for implementation.

“Despite budget constraints, we are compelled to implement such small roads due to pressure from the politicians. The quality of roads is decreasing and the pace of implementation slowing due to low budget and large number of projects,” he added.

The government has been allocating Rs 60,000 to Rs 1.5 million form small road projects which technicians say is insufficient for timely implementation.

Sitaula said not more than 250 small roads of the 2,000 under construction roads are of strategic importance and link two districts.

Political leaders approach the MoPPW as they can get roads demanded by them included in Red Book and avoid implementation through local bodies.

NPC officials are also facing pressure from lawmakers who keep frequenting their office with the demand for small roads in their constituencies. “We are not in a position to fulfill the demands as most of the road projects demanded by them are not of economical significance but motivated by personal interests,” an NPC source said.

courtesy:myrepublica