The Hindu Business Line : IBRD wants work on Kerala transport project expedited

A VISITING World Bank team has expressed satisfaction over the progress of work under the $334-million Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP), which it is financing.

However, the team wanted the State administration to expedite land acquisition and consolidate cooperation among various stakeholders.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Stein Lundebye, the Washington-based Task Team Leader, Road Safety, and Mr Arnab Bandhyopadhyay, of the New Delhi office of the Bank, acknowledged that the State Government had made a "big effort" in implementing the project, but procedural delays had resulted in an overall lag of 6 months.

This, according to them, was attributable to the labyrinthine land acquisition procedures, which were `very slow and time consuming.' The result was that no big road stretches were available to build on at any given point of time.

"The Government has made considerable strides in really improving the situation. We hope the process would be better streamlined in future," Mr Lundebye said. He agreed that the Government had a major problem identifying required land in a State that represents one large urban agglomeration of villages and towns. The Government needed to coordinate with all stakeholders to the project. "They have to get done with all the revenue surveys. The records are very, very old. This is again proving a bottleneck. Otherwise, all design and contract documents are ready. Financial management systems for the project are in place, which will be rolled out to all PWD (Public Works Department) divisions by the end of the next year or the beginning of the following year."

Asked how Kerala was different from other States where the WB is involved in similar programmes, the World Bank official said: "Kerala is a densely populated State, and represents an urban continuum. Ideally, the Government should own the land, remove all the utilities upfront, and then award the contract. We haven't seen that happen, which would prevent these delays."

But, the PWD people have been trying very hard to facilitate the progress. They have got some very capable people here to supervise. Disparate partners who are involved in the project - contractors, the engineers and employers, in this case the Government of Kerala - should expand their cooperation.

Road safety was another aspect that the Bank was deeply concerned about in the State. "Before we started off with the project, we knew that the State had a very poor road safety record. In fact, it had the second worst history of road safety in the country. So we're having a major road safety component incorporated into our work. We're involved in as many as 7 States in the country, but nowhere else has road safety been taken as seriously as here. We would like to promote Kerala as a model for other States in road safety."

The experts were also appreciative of the fact that the State PWD was directly engaged in road safety engineering. "The PWD has set up a road safety cell here. And the cell has in turn been trained by top international experts. We will now help the State Government build a team of experts and facilitate, set up and implement a State road safety action plan that would cover not just PWD engineering, but also driver training, vehicle testing, road safety education, emergency services and traffic enforcement."

Wherever there are new project roads, the Bank has recommended that the Government initiate road safety awareness programmes so that the local community people who are affected by the development would receive comprehensive road safety training. It hopes to create a road safety culture in the local community in the project areas to start with, which could spread to other parts of the State in a gradual process.

An accident recording and reporting system would be developed for the benefit of the police, the PWD and the Transport Commissioner. Also, the Government has been requested to prepare animated road safety videos that can be shown to children. The project would also facilitate transport user satisfaction surveys. "We will have people say what the improvements the PWD should bring about on roads," the experts said.

They were satisfied with general maintenance of roads. This showed that the PWD had excellent capabilities, they added.

Roadmap for safe travel

Kerala has the highest rate of road accidents of any State in the country. The Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) will address the rapid increase in demand for road services that has contributed to this low level of road safety.

The project will enhance road capacity and provide targeted safety programmes designed to boost both safety and efficiency of roads.

The KSTP aims to improve traffic flow and road safety on the State's primary road network, and to strengthen the institutional and financial capacity of key transport sector agencies. The project consists of four main components:

1) The transport corridor improvement component will support upgrading of State highways, including related social and environmental mitigation measures, and rehabilitating inland water transport feeder canals.

2) The road maintenance component will provide periodic maintenance of State highways and major district roads.

3) The road safety improvement component comprises consultant services for `black spot' identification, programming and designing minor improvements works for State roads, minor mitigation measures and recommendations identified through this service will be implemented through small contracts.

4) The institutional development and technical assistance (TA) component will provide services to implement the institutional strengthening action plan by appointing TA consultants in the areas of maintenance management and data collection, and developing a road management system.

The project will improve traffic flow and road safety on the primary road network. The project will support: improving the capacity of highly congested State highways and major district roads, improving road maintenance, reducing accidents and piloting inland water canal improvements.

The project is expected to reduce vehicle operating costs and travel time by 20 per cent on 1,600 km of roads, reduce the roughness of the road and make them more comfortable for riding, reduce accidents by up to 30 per cent by improving black spots on project roads.

The roads to be improved will pass through 405 villages of 14 districts. It will improve access to schools and health centres, enhance economic and social benefits for better access and enhanced mobility.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Virgin hails UK move for air services talks with India — Holidays arm keen on Indian market

Jet to raise Apex, Super Apex fares from Dec 1

Govt allays monopoly fears at JNPT box terminal

With truckers reluctant to operate — Zonal rlys urged to move foodgrains to North-East

IBRD wants work on Kerala transport project expedited