PAKISTAN is primarily an agricultural country with about 60 per cent of its population living in the rural areas .

The services provided in the rural areas for education, drinking water, sanitation, communication system, electrification, health facilities, etc, are insufficient as compared to the actual requirement, which yields a poor quality of rural life.

This encourages rural-urban migration creating the serious problem in urban management. The government has started the Social Action Programme (SAP) for the improvement and expansion of four of the country’s basic social services in the rural areas; primary education, primary health care, population welfare, rural water supply and sanitation. For an integrated rural development programme, rural access to these facilities is a prerequisite for an integrated rural development programme.

At present, the means of communications in the rural areas are generally ‘kutcha’ tracks, which can be used only in fair weather. Without a better communication system in the rural areas, expected benefits for poverty alleviation may not be accrued. For example, a number of schools constructed through the SAP are not effectively functioning due to non-availability of a better rural area road.

Moreover, the agricultural sector, which is the backbone of Pakistan, has an important role in the overall economic growth. The agricultural sector has a direct impact on the economic growth, given its one-fourth share in the economy.During the 1986-91 period, agricultural growth in Pakistan was 4.3 per cent, while it varied (4.9, 2.3, 3.6 per cent) in 1960s, 70s, and 80s respectively, which shows the stagnant behaviour of the agricultural performance.

However, a bumper crop in 2000 surprised the government, which was not prepared for logistics, storage, etc. This resulted in huge losses. In addition, the share of agricultural sector in GDP has decreased from 53.2 per cent in 1949-50 to 24.2 per cent in 1996-97. However, still agricultural sector is employing more than 50 per cent of labour force and earning 70 per cent of export revenue with GDP share of 24.2 per cent. One of the reasons of stagnant behaviour of agricultural performance before 2000 is the shortage of water and rural access roads to marketing centres, which constrains agriculture inputs and sale of the produces. The farmer (particularly small farmers) are forced to sell their produce at low price specially during glut period as they cannot afford to store the wheat. As a result, small farmers earn meagre profits and have no access to modern techniques to improve the agricultural productivity. The lack of rural access roads has been restraining the social and financial benefits of the rural population.

It is imperative to design a comprehensive policy to extend the road network by utilizing the available resources, which will have a positive effect on the agricultural performance and will improve the quality of rural life.

This study aims to develop a programme to increase road density in Pakistan by 0.1 km/sq.km. under the Rural Access Programme in 10 to 12 years without stretching the available scarce financial resources. This approach will bring a revolution in the socio-economic scenario and steadily lessen the influx of rural population and the burden on urban infrastructure.

Density of roads: The density of roads in Pakistan is 0.25 Km/Sq. Km, which is half of the density of roads in India. One of the reasons that Indian economy grew by 6.8 per cent during 1996-97 is a dense road network. Paved road density, excluding urban roads, is 0.11 Km/Sq.Km,in Pakistan whereas in India it is 0.23 Km/Sq.Km.

For an additional 0.1 Km/Sq.Km of density, Pakistan has to construct 82,000 Km of rural access roads.

Development status: Rural access roads were being constructed under the Rural Access Road Programme with an average progress rate of 600 Km/year. Since 1989 to 2000, Pakistan completed about 6000 Kms. of rural access roads including 4250 Km by MELG & RD. However, progress achieved by the rural roads being constructed is significantly less than the actual requirement. One of the main constrains recognized for the slow construction rate is the paucity of funds or mismanagement of available resources. With the tempo of rural road construction programme the target of completing 82,000 Km. will be achieved in about 137 years. Can Pakistan affords this?

Pakistan has, therefore, to develop a model to find out how 82,000 Km of rural access roads could be constructed in a shorter period of time within the available financial resources. It is calculated that the above target could be achieved in only 10-12 years with the construction rate of 7,000 to 10,000 Km per year. However, the proposed construction rate has to be 10 times grater than the present construction rate, of 600 Km per year. The proposed construction rate of 7,000 to 10,000 Km per year could be achieved in 2-3 years of a project commencement, starting with a pilot project of 1000 K per year and increasing progressively to achieve the proposed target.

Proposed model: here a model is proposed, which briefly discusses how the construction of rural access roads of 82,000 Km is possible in 10-12 years without much stretching the available financial resources.

Development programme: The proposed model makes full use of rural potential of labour and indigenous material. According to a World Bank study (Coukis and others, 1983):

“For a wide range of construction activities the labour- based methods are technically feasible and they can generally produce a quality comparable to that obtained with capital-based methods. Labour-based methods can also compete economically for many civil works projects in labour-abundant and capital-scarce countries, particularly if labour productivity is increased by organizational, management and mechanical improvements. A review of more than thirty types of civil works indicates that all would be less costly with labour-based construction methods as compared to the capital-based methods”.

In Pakistan, the labour population in rural areas is free from their agriculture works for 6 to 8 months in a year. The rural labour population during their free period of time could be involved in the construction of rural access roads on the basis of Community Participatory Development Programme (CPDP). Local rural labour will participate in the construction of rural access roads at a nominal cost as usual in their own culture of participatory development programmes. It is common in rural culture that people participate free in harvesting, only at the hospitality of the crop owner and rebuild house jointly at the cost of a simple rural lunch per day.

Cost: The cost of construction and consulting services etc. for RAR being coordinated by MELGRD and executed by Provincial C&W Department has been as follows:

Phase-I (750 Km) Total cost per Km. Rs1.76 million.

Phase-II (1,538 Km) Cost per Km. = Rs2.86 million.

Phase-III (1,940 Km) Cost per Km. = Rs4.38 Million.

It is expected that the proposed labour-intensive model will incur the construction cost of less than Rs2.00 million/Km against the present average cost of Rs4.38 million/km.

Specifications: Presently all rural access roads are constructed following the international standards without giving substantial weightage and consideration to indigenous materials and needs. The proposed model ephasizes the use of indigenous materials and appropriate specifications according to the traffic needs of the area where roads will be constructed. The average embankment is to be minimum of 60 - 80 Cm. with cross drainage through RCC pipes. Pavement to be composed of 20 Cm hand broken ballast and triple surface treatment (TST) with 2 M shoulder and 3 M lane width.

Monitoring: The planning and supervision/quality control may be done by the Association of Consulting Engineers Pakistan (ACEP). The ACEP may mobilize say 20 experienced member consultants specialized in road planning and construction. Each member will be allotted a certain area covering 1500 - 5000 Km roads or as per the capacity and experience of a member consultant. One most capable and technology-equipped consultant will be appointed as the general consultant, for managing and monitoring the work of all other area consultants. The general consultant will also identify a network in each province, with the responsibility to get the planning, surveying, designing and estimating of work done with simpler bidding documents using indigenous material and labour. The programme shall have a unified policy and standardized system with design variation according to soil condition.

Management: For over 500 Km. network in a contiguous area, a local management contractor will be nominated/selected to bid for :

* transportation of local material to the site,

* consultant’s supervision according to bid documents,

* use of his own road building plant and equipment essential for the work.

* utilization of only local labour in each area.

The road plant and equipment may be arranged on supplier’s credit direct to the management contractor against his own guarantees with mortgage of the plant on five years’ repayment schedule and one year grace period. The management contractor will utilize the local labour organized by NGOs or local village community to utilize participatory culture of our village community. The contractor will be paid pre-determined average contract cost of per Km on the completion of various stages of work.

Funding: According to the proposed model annual funding of the rural access road project could be arranged by considering the funds being utilized on the RAR by MELGRD through various agencies and diverting 10 per cent funds from poverty alleviation fund.

Present average annual funding on RAR/year by MELGRD through various agencies Rs2,800 million.

Divert funds fro PPAF Rs8,100 million,

IBRD/ADB Rs4,600 million,

Total funds for 12 - 15 years. Rs15,500 million.

According to the proposed model, it is expected that total cost for the construction of RAR per km, will cost less than Rs2.00 million

Therefore, annual roads building programme could be-15,500/2.00 = 7750 km, say Rs 7,000 km.

With the present estimated financial resources allocated/ diverted to the RAR project, 82,000 Km RAR will be completed in 12 years, with less funding it could be done in 15 years.

Regulatory rules; The regulatory rules will have to be framed so that heavy traffic will not ply on these roads. Generally, the construction of all weather roads prompt the through-traffic of heavy trucks and trailers, which could damage the road structure. It is, therefore, essential that all RARs connecting various rural areas will have blind ends and connected to provincial highways at one end only. This will eliminate heavy traffic and consequently construction cost will decrease. In addition, the required maintenance cost in the long run will also decrease if the heavy traffic on these roads is discouraged. However, in case of a RAR connecting two highways will have to be designed for heavy traffic.

Policy issues: The proposed model for community participatory development of rural access roads warrants the attention of the policy makers in the GoP, provincial agencies and the donor agencies. The policy issues to be considered through the proposed model are briefly discussed in the following paragraphs:

Under the rural development scenario the poverty alleviation programme is to be reviewed as an integrated social development programme for the project areas. This is simply to ensure the impact of the huge investment being allocated in the interest of the target user population for the alleviation of poverty. The programme is to improve social standards and quality of life in the project areas and provide employment opportunities to the community.

It is on record that 15-25 per cent of the SAP projects suffered by the non-availability of better access roads. It is suspected that due to in-accessibility, a substantial part of the SAP investment was getting lost. If only 10 percent of SAP (Rs5-6 billion per annum) would have been diverted to the rural access programme (RAP) as a part of SAP1, this waste on the SAP would have been controlled by better management and monitoring of funds.

The present rural access roads under a separate programme are being implemented by provincial construction and works departments and ministry of environment, local government and rural development (MELGRD). These rural access roads (RAR) were costing over Rs 4.5 million per Km because all specifications adhere to international standards with less focus on indigenous materials and labour intensive construction. The rural access roads at the above cost for low intensity and light traffic, simply renders the present high investment per Km on RAR as unaffordable and cannot support the debt servicing due to low stream of its benefits.

We can avoid heavy traffic on the RAR by planning all RAR with blind ends. Only local light traffic will use the road with less maintenance cost.

8. Development benefits: The construction of rural access roads is expected to have the following major projects.

* The RAR by CPDP will be sustainable and address poverty issue.

* It will reduce the rural urban migration and problems in urban management.

* The construction of RAR will lead to an increase in the performance of agricultural sector, improve profits to the farmers and reduce poverty due to growth generated by the poor community.

* The proposed RAR project will generate a huge demand of material and equipment and make an impact on industrial products demand.

* The execution of RAR project will create an extensive number of jobs at the doorsteps of the rural population.

* Last but not least, it will attract investment in the rural areas by rural family members earning abroad.

Conclusion: The construction of rural access roads is essential for improvement and bringing a visible socio-economic revolution in rural economy. The age-old kutcha village roads are seasonal (unfit for all weather traffic) and can no longer meet the preset day need. The Govern-ment must give greater priority to the construction of access roads in rural areas. In order to achieve the above stated target, the community participatory development programme (CPDP) as proposed above is the only effective method to alleviate poverty.