Roads now worse than a year ago
The roads that have been in "poor, bad or very bad" conditions got worse over the last one year, dealing a setback to the Roads and Highways Department.
After 2018, this is the first time both the length and percentage of roads in "poor, bad or very bad" conditions have increased in a year-to-year comparison, according to documents seen by this correspondent.
At least 2,152km or 10.48 percent of all surveyed roads, are still in "poor, bad or very bad" conditions, says an RHD survey published yesterday.
Around Tk 9,479 crore would be needed in the next fiscal year for repairing the roads, bridges and culverts, according to the Maintenance and Rehabilitation Needs Report 2023-24.
But, the RHD is going to get only Tk 3,800 crore for maintenance, RHD sources said.
And experts and engineers observe that overloading, lack of budgetary allocation for timely maintenance, and poor construction materials are the major reasons why the roads are in a battered shape.
Last year's needs report recommended Tk 6,295 crore to be allocated for maintenance in the 2022-23 fiscal year, but only Tk 3,050 crore were allocated, an RHD engineer said.
"Poor allocation for maintenance is the main reason behind the deterioration of road conditions," he told The Daily Star yesterday, wishing not to be named.
Contacted, RHD Chief Engineer Md Ishaque said, "I haven't seen the report. I have to make comments after seeing it."
According to this year's needs report, 22,476km of national and regional highways and district roads across the country are under RHD jurisdiction.
The Highway Development and Maintenance Circle of the RHD carries out the survey every year to project the total maintenance costs for its road network.
It also conducts the survey to prioritise the roads needing maintenance because it does not get enough budgetary allocation to repair all roads at once.
The latest survey was conducted from November 2022 to March 2023.
According to the report, 20,523km of roads were surveyed this year. This doesn't include the ones being rehabilitated or reconstructed.
The survey found over 1,263 km of road (6.16 percent) in poor condition, 511.59km (2.49 percent) in bad condition and 377.15km (1.84 percent) in very bad condition.
The remaining 89.52 percent were found in "good" or "fair" conditions.
However, last year's report found 2,078km or 10.48 percent of the total 20,272km of surveyed roads in "poor, bad or very bad" conditions.
The length of road in "poor, bad or very bad" conditions was 4,731km (26.32 percent) in 2018; 4,247km (24.34 percent) in 2019; 3,590km (18.61 percent) in 2020; and 3,006km (16.27 percent) in 2021.
The department classified the roads in five categories on the basis of roughness, said an RHD engineer.
A road classified as "very bad" needs immediate attention. A "bad" road left without attention turns into a very bad one in a year, he said.
Travelling on a "poor road" takes longer to reach a destination and the ride is not comfortable, he added.
This year's report made eight recommendations including controlling overloading and increasing budgetary allocation for both routine and periodic maintenance.
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