PESHAWAR, Aug 25: Lack of funds and planning vision and accountability and confusion caused by the devolution plan are the main factors responsible for the poor transportation system in the NWFP, a World Bank report says.

“Although the transport services contribute about 9.5 per cent of the province’s economy and provide more than 6 per cent of jobs, the real potential of this sector is not fully tapped,” said the report.

It said some regions in the province are inaccessible because of congested transport system and bad roads, which especially affected people in the rural areas, which accounted for 80 per cent of the population.

The bank recommended institutional reforms while taking into account the devolution law, performance-based incentives for officials involved in the regularization of the transport and road infrastructure and allocation of adequate funds for construction of roads.

It called for reducing damage to roads through enforcement of law for vehicle loading limits and coordination among the province and the districts to streamline the system.

It also called for involvement of road users’ representatives and communities decisions regarding improvement in the system.

The transport infrastructure was deteriorating fast, while very little efforts were in sight to maintain the roads and few resources were channelled towards new constructions.

Roads in villages and from farms to markets were in bad shape, exacerbating poverty, the report said.

One in every five rural residents did not have access to roads in all weathers and two had no transport service available in their villages.

It said the primary school enrolment of girls in rural areas with roads was 38 per cent while the figure in communities without roads was 13 per cent.

The number of licensed wagon and buses was 2,366, besides 12,000 rickshaws, of which 2,843 were licensed, which employed an estimated 22,000 people, it said.

More than 30,000 vehicles were plying without permits, it said.

It said the province spent on average Rs830 million per year on roads from 1998 to 2001 and about 12 per cent of its annual development programme was spent on roads in addition to 0.12 per cent on road maintenance and repair. Expenditure on maintenance ranged from a maximum of Rs240 million in 1999-2000 to less than Rs30 million in 2002-3.

The province needed Rs500 million per annum for the next five years for the upkeep of the 7,404km roads in 24 districts while less than Rs10 million had been allocated for the purpose in the past two years, said the report.

The provincial and district governments had launched 274 projects, the cost of which was above Rs20.4 billion, it said.

It said geography and topology posed severe constraints to the transport system a large portion of the rural population lived in mountainous areas.

The connection of outlying rural communities and villages to the main cities and transportation links remained a key challenge for the province, it said.

The dominant role of agriculture in the economy created greater challenge for the transport system, it said.