Gujarat State highways' quality flies over global standard

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GANDHINAGAR: In its latest report, the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank has said that Gujarat state highways' International Roughness Index (IRI) - the commonly used method worldwide for evaluating quality of road - is better than the internationally desirable level.

Saying that it is "less than 4 metres per km", the study adds, prior to 2000, when the Bank began funding 16 state highway projects, the IRI was quite bad, ranging between 6 metres per km to 20 metres per km. Called "Project Performance Assessment Report: India", it was prepared in June 2012 and released this month.

The report says, on completion of the project in 2007, things began to improve, and between October 2011 and February 2012, when the IEG studied the roads, IRI was better than the internationally desirable level of 4 metres per km in 13 out of 16 state highways. The three highways that failed to meet international standards were Vadodara-Padra-Jambusar (4.18 metres per km), Halol-Godhra (4.24) and Bharuch-Dahej (4.02). Giving full marks to the state roads and buildings (R&B) department for this, the study says, it "managed the project in a professional manner."

Praising state highways maintenance, the study says, "The administrative cost in the capital maintenance and maintenance budget was reduced by almost half from 30 per cent at project approval to 15.7 per cent on project completion, The figure for 2011 shows a further decrease to 11.5 per cent, indicating an impressive and continued improvement beyond the project." The "maintenance backlog" in these years went down from 10,000 km when the project began to 1,290 km in 2011.

Based on its evaluation, the report, which also compares Gujarat state highways with that of Karnataka, has rated "implementation completion and results" of the Gujarat state highways as "highly satisfactory" as against Karnataka's merely "satisfactory". This, it believes, has happened because Gujarat has been a "pioneer" in pursuing economic reforms not just in the roads sector but also in fiscal policy, power, and education, and private sector participation in infrastructure.

This is the third Bank report in three years in praise of state highways. The first one, in August 2010, "Good Governance in Highway Sector: Learning from Gujarat", said the "exemplary" reforms in Gujarat's roads sector should be replicated by other states. The second one, a year later, "Lessons from International Experience: Road Asset Management", prepared for the Planning Commission of the Government of India, took almost the same view, adding, reforms in the state roads sector come "closer to international standards" and these could be followed by other developing countries.

State highways' quality flies over global standard - The Times of India
 

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