DESPITE investing Rs100bn in road maintenance programmes from 2005 to 2015, Sindh needs to renew its Road Master Plan 1995. The provincial highway system’s quality is said to be deteriorating and is considered below the national standard.

Some investments may have fallen short of achieving the expected outcomes because of changes in the structure and composition of the province’s economy. Some regional economic hubs developed after 2010 also need to be connected with high-quality road links.

Roads are the predominant mode of transport in the country, carrying 91pc of passenger traffic in passenger-kilometres and 96pc of freight traffic in tonne-kilometres. Sindh follows the same pattern and has a road network of 25,737km, including 1,365km of national highways and 2,830km of provincial highways.

The density of Sindh’s road network is lower than the national road density of 0.33km per square kilometre. The low road density and poor road conditions have constrained the development of the provincial economy.

Provincial highways, which account for over 30pc of traffic on the provincial road network, are a vital link between national highways and rural access roads. They have received marginal attention despite various government efforts, such as mobilising resources through public-private partnership (PPP) and bilateral financing.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a project that will support the government in preparing Sindh’s road master plan.

The ADB has approved $197m to rehabilitate 328km of Sindh’s highways. This will be complemented by $30m in support from the provincial government

The new master plan will identify the physical gaps and capacity constraints in the provincial road network relative to current and future traffic demand. It will also pinpoint the systemic improvements needed to satisfy the mobility and logistics requirements of a modern economy.

The ADB has agreed to assess the status and condition of the overall transport system; the characteristics of the road transport demand and supply (reflecting trends in economic growth and regional and sub-regional trade as well as the transport modal split); and the spatial distribution, serviceability, and condition of the road infrastructure.

An assessment report shows that the annual budget allocations for road maintenance and preservation have been insufficient to operate and maintain the road system at an acceptable service level. Road sector allocations received by the works and services department have averaged about 2-2.5pc of Sindh’s annual budget. Over 50pc of this allocation is spent on constructing new roads and bridges and on upgrading works.

The expenditure on road maintenance has averaged less than 1pc of Sindh’s annual budget. Moreover, the scarce maintenance funds are not spent in a cost-effective way.

Meanwhile, the ADB has approved $197m to rehabilitate 328km of provincial highways. The bank’s assistance will be complemented by $30m in support from the provincial government, and it is expected that the rehabilitation work will be completed by the end of 2019.

Much of the road network is spread densely along the banks of the Indus and its major irrigation and drainage canals. Rural road connectivity is poor in the south-eastern districts of the province and along the coast. The extensive arid and desert regions in the west and east of the province have few all-weather engineered roads.

The new project will involve the rehabilitation and upgradation of some major inter-district connections to the standard width of 7.3m, along with appropriate drainage and safety facilities, including institutional strengthening, road safety and road asset management improvement components.

Sindh’s provincial highways, which handle traffic of about 8,000 vehicles daily, connect the province’s administrative and commercial centres with district headquarters and market towns.

The master plan will incorporate a comprehensive medium-term road development and maintenance programme with a phased plan of road investments over a 10-year period. The feasibility studies for high-priority road investments will also be included.

The master plan will identify policies and complementary investments to support multi-modal transport services and inter-modal connectivity. While it will focus on physical planning, investment policies, and modalities, it will also address the institutional, financing, regulatory and pricing and cost-recovery aspects, as well as traffic accidents, congestion and environmental and social impacts.

Moreover, the master plan will include roads and streets in the metropolitan and urban areas of Sindh. It will develop a geographic information system-based spatial and condition inventory of all roads to provide the baseline information and data for a road asset management system.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, October 19th , 2015

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