rural roads and community access in sri lanka · pdf filerural roads and community access in...
TRANSCRIPT
RURAL ROADS
AND
COMMUNITY ACCESS
IN SRI LANKA: AN OVERVIEW
Final Report
Professor Amal S. Kumarage Colombo, Sri Lanka
May 2003
Amal S. Kumarage 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 : BACKGROUND & BRIEF _________________________________ 1
1.1 Purpose of the consultancy________________________________________________________________ 1
1.2 Scope of Work __________________________________________________________________________ 1
CHAPTER 2 : OVERVIEW OF EXISTING CONDITIONS ____________________ 2
2.1 Rural Roads ____________________________________________________________________________ 4
2.2 Transport Access ________________________________________________________________________ 7
2.3 Rural travel needs _______________________________________________________________________ 7
2.4 Expenditure on Transport ________________________________________________________________ 8
2.5 Traffic on Rural Roads ___________________________________________________________________ 8
2.6 Transport Vehicles for Rural Community Access ____________________________________________ 9
2.7 Intermediate Modes of Transport _________________________________________________________ 10
2.8 Institutional Framework ________________________________________________________________ 11
2.9 Transport Planning & Policy _____________________________________________________________ 11
2.10 Budget Allocations ____________________________________________________________________ 12
CHAPTER 3 : ASSESSMENT OF MAJOR RURAL ROADS/ACCESS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS, ESPECIALLY BY DONOR AGENCIES ________ 14
3.1 World Bank ___________________________________________________________________________ 14
3.2 Asian Development Bank ________________________________________________________________ 15 3.2.1 The Southern Provincial Roads Improvement Project _______________________________________ 15 3.2.2 The Road Sector Development Project ___________________________________________________ 15 3.2.3 The Southern Province Rural Economic Advancement Project _______________________________ 16
3.3 NORAD ______________________________________________________________________________ 17
3.4 JICA/JBIC ____________________________________________________________________________ 17
CHAPTER 4 : PROFILE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS WITH CAPACITY FOR IMPLEMENTING PROJECTS ON RURAL ROAD/ACCESS ___ 18
4.1 Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) Sri Lanka _____________________________ 18
4.2 Sarvodaya Rural Technical Services ______________________________________________________ 20
4.3 Lanka Forum on Rural Transport Development ____________________________________________ 20
4.4 Transportation Engineering Division, University of Moratuwa ________________________________ 21
Amal S. Kumarage 2
CHAPTER 5 : EVALUATIONS AND DOCUMENTATIONS ON RURAL ACCESS 22
5.1 Suitability of Gravel Roads ______________________________________________________________ 22
5.2 Design Criterion for Gravel Roads ________________________________________________________ 22
5.3 Research on Gravel Roads in Sri Lanka ___________________________________________________ 22
5.4 Warrants for Construction of Gravel Roads ________________________________________________ 23
5.5 Cost of Gravel Roads ___________________________________________________________________ 23
5.6 Selection of Rural Roads ________________________________________________________________ 24
5.7 Procurement of Community Based Services for Investments in Rural Roads ____________________ 24
5.8 Transport and the Poor _________________________________________________________________ 24
5.9 Women in Rural Communities ___________________________________________________________ 25
CHAPTER 6 : CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVING RURAL ACCESS IN SRI LANKA _____________________________________________ 26
6.1 Inventorising Rural Access Roads in Sri Lanka _____________________________________________ 26
6.2 Formulation of Improved and Cost Effective Technical Design Standards ______________________ 27
6.3 Formulation of Guidelines for Construction Detail __________________________________________ 27
6.4 Formulate Criterion or Warrants to determine suitability of Gravel Roads _____________________ 27
6.5 Improve Selection Criterion _____________________________________________________________ 28
6.6 Financing the Construction of Rural Roads ________________________________________________ 28
6.7 Design of Community Participation in Construction & Maintenance of Roads ___________________ 28
6.8 Financing the Maintenance of Rural Access Roads __________________________________________ 29
6.9 Study of Rural Transport Needs __________________________________________________________ 29
6.10 Design of Multi Purpose Rural Transport Vehicle __________________________________________ 29
6.11 Promotion of IMTs ____________________________________________________________________ 29
6.12 Improving Rural Bus Services ___________________________________________________________ 29
6.13 Promoting Ownership and use of Bicycles in Rural Areas ___________________________________ 30
CHAPTER 7 : REFERENCES: ________________________________________ 31
Amal S. Kumarage 3
LIST OF TABLES Table 1 : Sri Lanka Road Network Length & Density (2002) _________________________ 4 Table 2 : Growth of the Road Network __________________________________________ 5 Table 3: Access Distances to Basic Services (Sri Lanka) ___________________________ 7 Table 4: Expenditure on Public Transport as % of Expenditure on Transport (1990/91) ___ 8 Table 5: Vehicle Ownership per 100 Households (Sri Lanka) ________________________ 9 Table 6: Budget Allocations to Highways Sector _________________________________ 12 Table 7 : Cost of Gravel Roads ______________________________________________ 23
Amal S. Kumarage 1
CHAPTER 1 : BACKGROUND & BRIEF According to the brief provided for this consultancy, SIDA considers that the transport sector might be one of the focus areas for the new strategy and with particular emphasis on e.g. rural access give room for a broad range of transport related interventions, from grants to credits and guarantees, primarily aiming at poorer regions and groups. In anticipation of this, a first consultancy was undertaken in May 2002 to appraise the ADB led ‘Road Sector Development Project (RSDP)’. The consultant had indicated components suitable for Swedish support but also that further in-depth studies would be necessary. One indicated component under RSDP was Community Access, with the objective of improving living conditions of the rural poor by enhanced access. SIDA had fielded a fact finding mission in November 2002 which also looked into the area of rural roads/community access. It found that a number of initiatives have been taken in recent years by various institutions/organizations to assist and develop means for improving rural transport and access. Such projects could include earth road construction and maintenance that can be managed by village communities themselves, improvement and construction of foot-bridges and paths as well as introduction of intermediate means of transport (IMT).
1.1 Purpose of the consultancy
The purpose of this consultancy as expressed in the contract is to provide SIDA with an overview of ‘rural roads/community access projects’ initiated and carried out during the last five years in Sri Lanka (1997-2002) as well as of current and planned similar initiatives. It is to also serve as an indicator of which organizations have experience in this field.
1.2 Scope of Work
Accordingly, the scope of this report is to: 1. Prepare an overview of the conditions of rural access in Sri Lanka. 2. Make an assessment of the major rural road/ access development programs, especially
those undertaken by the foreign donors in recent years and comment in particular on successful community participation and sustainability.
3. Indicate on-going and planned interventions. 4. Prepare a list of NGOs that have been involved in “community access projects” in Sri
Lanka giving legal status, modality of funding, personnel resources, financial resources and experience in similar types of work.
5. List evaluations or other documentation relating to rural access 6. The identification and elaboration of the challenges and opportunities that exist for
introducing improved rural access that would be sustainable under the local conditions.
Amal S. Kumarage 2
Metal Road serving a tea factory
CHAPTER 2 : OVERVIEW OF EXISTING CONDITIONS
Sri Lanka’s has an extensive network of roads. The roads fall into three basic categories. The National Roads which make up Classes A and B are administered by the Road Development Authority (RDA) which is an agency under the Ministry of Transport, Highways & Civil Aviation. It is charged with providing inter provincial road links and maintaining existing roads. It receives funding through the annual budget allocation. However, most new road projects as well as road rehabilitation projects are funded through foreign aid. A Road Fund Act was proposed in the Budget for 2003, to develop a dedicated fund for road maintenance. As shown in Table 1 there are 11,760 kms of national roads in Sri Lanka.
The secondary roads network comprises the provincial roads, mostly in Classes C and D which are administered by the eight provincial councils. There are departments or more autonomous authorities through which these roads are managed by each of the councils. Funds for the management of these roads, are received though the annual allocations to the Finance Commission. The most part of these roads are metalled and most of them support a bus service. The secondary road network is more extensive than the national road network amounting to 15,743 kms.
The third tier of the road network is the access roads. These are primarily managed by the
Pradeshiya Sabhas in rural areas and the municipal or urban councils in urban areas. The funds for these are obtained partly through grants received from the central government through the Ministry of Local Government as well as money raised through taxes. These roads are usually classified as Class E. There is also a large extent of Class E roads that are maintained by other agencies mostly government institutions which are also used as public thoroughfares in rural areas. These belong to the Irrigation Department, Mahaweli Authority, Wild Life Department, plantation companies, Fisheries Department and the Forest Department. There are no specific institutional arrangements to maintain these roads. Maintenance is mostly ad hoc and generally done only when funds are made available. There is no accurate inventory of these roads as yet. The recent most estimate of 68,843 kms dates to 1990. More recent estimates from Uva Province (Kumarage, 2000)1 and the Southern Province indicates that there are perhaps 20% more length at the present time. At this level roads
are constantly added to the network with an estimated 1,000 kms of new rural roads been built annually (Kumarage, 1998)2 mainly through village shramadana (voluntary) works, disbursements of members of parliament or the provincial councils from their decentralized budgets and conversion of private roads to public roads.
1 Kumarage Amal S, Study on Improving the Accessibility & Mobility of the Highway Network in Uva Province, UNDP Colombo, September 2000. 2 Kumarage Amal S, Formulation of Policy Framework for Poverty Alleviation: Transport, UNDP/World Bank,
Colombo, November 1998
Amal S. Kumarage 3
Amal S. Kumarage 4
Table 1 : Sri Lanka Road Network Length & Density (2002)
Province
Road Length
Land Area
sq. km
Road Density (km/sq. km)
Nati
on
al
Ro
ad
s
Pro
vin
cia
l R
oad
s
Oth
er
3R
oad
s
TO
TA
L
Nati
on
al
Ro
ad
s
Pro
vin
cia
l R
oad
s
Oth
er
Ro
ad
s
TO
TA
L
Western
1,544
1,830
9,635
13,008
3,684 0.42 0.50 2.62 3.53
Central
1,707
2,097
8,256
12,060
5,674 0.30 0.37 1.46 2.13
Southern
1,320
1,695
5,839
8,854
5,544 0.24 0.31 1.05 1.60
North East
2,405
2,698
12,856
17,959
18,880 0.13 0.14 0.68 0.95
North Western
1,275
2,142
11,866
15,283
7,888 0.16 0.27 1.50 1.94
North Central
1,160
2,406
9,306
12,872
10,472 0.11 0.23 0.89 1.23
Sabaragamuwa
1,103
800
4,956
6,859
4,968 0.22 0.16 1.00 1.38
Uva
1,246
2,075
6,129
9,450
8,500 0.15 0.24 0.72 1.11
Total
11,760
15,743
68,843
96,346
65,610 0.18 0.24 1.05 1.47
After adjusting for such, the access road network may be estimated at over 80,000 kms, bringing the total road network in Sri Lanka to 110,000 kms. Except for part of these access roads which are in town areas and are paved, most roads in this category in rural areas are unpaved. Some roads such as in estate areas, which would have been paved at some time, have turned to mostly gravel roads, with the metal having got washed away over the years. Table 1 also shows the variation in road density across the different provinces. While the Western Province has the highest density when measured by kms of road per sq km of land area, Kumarage4 (1998) points out that there are no noteworthy imbalances in road densities across the country when considered in conjunction with road density as measured by road kms per capita. It is shown that the provinces where the road density as measured in kms per square km is high, are the ones where density measured in terms of kms per capita is lower and vice versa.
2.1 Rural Roads
In 1959, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) had a total recorded road length of 19,104 kms. Of these only 12,000 kms were classified as access roads. However, in a bid to secure rural votes at elections, most candidates promised roads to the villages. Without a clear policy on a road network, the rural road network expanded rapidly. It is estimated at over 80,000kms today
3 The extent of roads maintained by other institutions (i.e. other than the RDA and the Provincial Councils) is not
known at present. The last estimate is from 1990. Comparison of recent estimates from Uva and Southern Province indicates that this network may be around 20% more than what is reported in the Table. Thus the extent of Other Roads may need to be increased by about 13,000 kms. This would make Other Roads over 80,000 kms and the total network to exceed 110,000 kms. 4 Kumarage Amal S, Formulation of Policy Framework for Poverty Alleviation: Transport, UNDP/World Bank,
Colombo, November 1998
Amal S. Kumarage 5
indicating an annual growth rate of 4.5%. However, most such roads have been constructed in an ad hoc manner and are typically:
• Poorly engineered, basically following the trace of a footpath which preceded it; • Poorly evaluated, with no criterion to select the most important roads and decisions
resting wholly on political considerations; • With no provision for maintenance, where the road once built is not provided with an
annual allocation for regular maintenance. • With no limitations on axle weights which have led to frequent damages, especially in
wet weather, when heavy vehicles servicing factories or metal quarries use these roads.
Figure 1: Growth of Road Length & Vehicle Stock in Sri Lanka
As shown in Figure 1, the growth of the provincial and rural road networks seem to have overtaken that of the national road network as well as the vehicle fleet in early years. In later years after the import liberalizations after 1978, the growth in the vehicle fleet has overtaken all road network expansions. However, the increase in vehicles is mostly an urban phenomenon, where the Western Province today registers over 50% of the national fleet and even the majority of vehicles in the provinces are registered in urban areas.
Table 2 : Growth of the Road Network
5 Estimated- refer footnote 3.
Year
RDA Provincial Access Urban
Access Rural
Total
1959
7,034
�12,070�
19,104
1971 n/a
21,496
1990
10,447
14,916
2,791 66,054
94,208
2002
11,760
15,743 5,200 77,8005
110,503
Growth of Road Length & Vehicle Stock (1959 Base = 100)
-
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1952 1953 1959 1971 1978 1990 1996
Year
GDP in Constant Rs.
A & B roads
Other Roads
Vehicle Stock
Amal S. Kumarage 6
Figure 2 : Climate Zones
The rapid expansion of the road network, especially the rural access roads has resulted in the creation of a very large infrastructure needing continuous maintenance. However, there has been no proportional increase in funds for maintenance. In fact maintenance funds per km and the ratio of funds for existing roads to new roads has reduced in real terms thus leaving no means of preventative repair for this vast network of rural roads. Moreover, there has been general neglect in the maintenance of these roads and standards or quality is not adequately measured either at construction, rehabilitation or repair. As a result, the condition of these rural roads today can be generally described as having:
• Inadequate funds for regular maintenance and rehabilitation • Vulnerability to erosion and regular flooding, • Poor travel conditions where directness and travel speeds are poor and • Some roads having metalled road surfaces that require specialized equipment for
maintenance but still having low traffic volumes and inadequate means to maintain at the local user level.
Moreover, rural communities often voice strong protest in the manner in which road works are handled, with accusations of corruption leveled at the methods in which contractors are chosen for such work and the fact that they are allowed to get away with shoddy work.
Amal S. Kumarage 7
2.2 Transport Access
Sri Lanka has approximately 70% of its population living in rural areas. The density of rural population is quite high in the wet zone, particularly in the south-western quadrant. In the dry zone and in the up country it is less dense. The needs for rural access change between different geographic locations. The needs in the densely populated wet zone are different to the thinly populated dry zone as is in the hill country. In general the need for rural access has been identified as follows:
• Access to markets for sale of agricultural produce • Access to services particularly secondary schools and medical facilities • Access to factories for industrial employment • Access to local towns for basic purchases and services • Transport of water and firewood within villages or between villages
Typical distances to access basic social and economic services, as compiled with data from the Sri Lanka Integrated Survey (1999/2000), and analyzed in Kumarage6 (2001b), are shown in Table 3. The mean distance to access both primary and secondary school services country, are quite reasonable at 1-3 kilometers. This can be attributed to the high density of schools in both urban and rural communities. The density of secondary roads would have contributed to reducing the mean access distance to main roads as would have the extensive bus network across the country. Average distances to public hospitals and markets and other basic services are between 3 to 6 kilometers. The maximum distances reported are in the range of 30 to 50 kms, in what would be described at the most inaccessible or remote households in Sri Lanka.
Table 3: Access Distances to Basic Services (Sri Lanka)
Mean Access Distance
(Kms)
Maximum Reported Distance
(Kms)
Primary School 1.36 38.4 Secondary School 2.5 32.0 Public Hospital 5.7 41.6 Main Road 1.6 52.8 Market 5.5 52.8 Express Bus Halt 3.0 48.0
2.3 Rural travel needs
In rural and estate areas, as opposed to urban areas, there is no major need to use motorized means to travel to work, as the distance between residence and workplace is often within walking distance. However, there is today a tendency for even farmers to use a bicycle. However with industries been located in provincial areas, young people, particularly women seek employment that they could secure provided they can commute from home. This is considered a more desirable option to present alternatives of overseas (mostly middle eastern) employment, migrant factory work (e,g, free trade zones mostly available only in the Western Province) or domestic work mostly in cities such as Colombo and Kandy.
6 Kumarage Amal S., ‘Household Expenditure on Transport and Public Transport’ World Bank, 2001b
Amal S. Kumarage 8
Kumarage7 (1999) shows that the poor transport services linking the rural households to city centres prevents such commuting and therewith potential employment opportunities are foregone. Other travel needs arise from seeking basic necessities mostly water and firewood. Most women walk large distances for this purpose and a survey by Fernando & Pannilage8 (1993) shows that in the dry zone in the dry season women may even spend up to 40 hours a week- getting water. Bicycles are also used by men in the rural areas who transport both water and firewood for a fee. Other travel needs are for schooling which in most cases is close enough for walking, but could pose a problem at secondary levels when commuting by bus is required, especially for girls. Taking agricultural produce to collection centres such as the tea factory, the rubber factory, the milk collecting centre or the market are also challenges in rural areas. A host of means ranging from walking to use of collection lorries are used for this purpose depending on the type of road available and the quantities that are available for collection. In estate areas, the agricultural produce is mostly collected by the estate management and travel needs are more personal in nature, for purposes of shopping, recreation and visiting relatives in adjoining estates and towns etc.
2.4 Expenditure on Transport
The breakdown of the percentage of income spent by a household for transport and communication in the urban, rural and estate sectors as per data from the Central Banks’ Household Income & Expenditure Survey and analyzed in Kumarage9 (2001b) are shown to be 7.1%, 5% and 2.5% respectively. In urban areas, the increase comes from a higher mobility compounded by the greater use of private motorized transport. In contrast, in rural and estate areas two-thirds of transport expenditure is on bus fares, which is the primary means of motorized travel. Spending on bus and rail-as a percentage of household expenditure, also taken from the Consumer Finance and Socioeconomic Survey of 1990/91, shows that higher income groups, particularly in urban areas, prefer to use private transport. At lower incomes, irrespective of location, people mainly use public transport.
Table 4: Expenditure on Public Transport as % of Expenditure on Transport (1990/91)
Sector Income Group (Rs)
0-1500 1501-3000 3001-5000 5001-10000
Over 10000
Urban Sector 95 89 70 37 11 Rural Sector 93 87 70 42 20 Estate Sector 99 95 95 - -
2.5 Traffic on Rural Roads
7 Kumarage Amal S., Transport Plan for Avissawella Town Development Project, 1999. 8 Fernando P, and U. Pannilage, ‘The Rural Transport Policy Study’, ITDG, 1993
9 Kumarage Amal S., ‘Household Expenditure on Transport and Public Transport’ World Bank, 2001b
Amal S. Kumarage 9
Most rural travel needs in Sri Lanka are met by non-motorized means and by public buses, where such services are available. A busy rural road which may serve a number of villages will typically have between 200 to 300 motorized vehicle movements per day, of which the vast majority would be low horse-powered motor cycles or three wheelers. In the dry zone, the bicycle traffic usually exceeds the combined traffic of all modes of motorized transport. Such roads would also have a scheduled bus service that would carry at least 70 percent of the passengers. Four or six wheel vehicle traffic would typically be around 50 vehicles per day. Goods vehicles used on such roads will be usually 4 wheel tractors, 2 wheeled tractors and 4 ton open trucks. There are usually regular truck movements such as for collecting tea leaves, milk and vegetables which are used by the villages for the transport of small quantities of goods. In other instances, the local bus is used extensively to transport small quantities of agricultural produce to the weekly fair ‘pola’ and to ferry inputs from the town. In general such a road would be managed by the Provincial Council and in most probability be metalled. On roads that serve just one or two villages, it is not common to find bus services. Even if available they would be in the form of the unregulated vans or passenger trucks, without a proper schedule. Hence most passengers tend to walk or use a bicycle on these roads. Vehicular traffic on such roads may not exceed 50 motorized vehicles per day, of which four to six wheeled vehicular movements would be less than 10. Freight transport is usually in the form of two wheeled tractors on these roads. Bicycle traffic is usually predominant especially in the dry zone, while motor cycles and three wheelers compose majority of the motorized traffic. There are reportedly over 25,000 villages in Sri Lanka. There is still no proper study of the extent of accessibility for each of them. While the 70,000 kms of rural roads are assumed to cover most of these villages, there are still villages without motorable access. These are mostly due to
• Lack of all-weather crossing of rivers; • Steep terrain and • Excessive distance from nearest motorable road.
There is no comprehensive survey or database on the degree of access to rural communities either at national or local levels to identify such villages.
2.6 Transport Vehicles for Rural Community Access
The bicycle has been the commonly used vehicle in rural area especially in the dry zones where the terrain is level. The traditional ox cart used by the women and the affluent for personal transport has been gradually replaced with motorized means over the years. Since of late and beginning with the advent of the two-wheeled tractor and trailer in the 1960s, followed by the rapid influx of motor cycles from the 1980s and the recent growth of the three wheeler population in the 1990s, the ox cart has been a receding mode of transport for passenger as well as goods. According to the Consumer Finance Survey Series (Central Bank, 1999), vehicle ownership per 100 households for the different types of private vehicles has changed over the last few years as shown in Table 5 and Figure 2.
Table 5: Vehicle Ownership per 100 Households (Sri Lanka)
Amal S. Kumarage 10
1978/79 1981/82 1986/87 1996/97
Bicycle 21.5 31.5 34.0 41.5 Motor Cycle 0.9 2.4 5.3 12.0 Motor Car/Van 1.9 2.3 3.0 3.4
These figures confirm that non-motorized vehicle ownership has been and is still pre-dominant in Sri Lanka and its ownership level (per household) continues to grow at 3.7 percent per annum while the motorized vehicle ownership rate has also increased by around 0.7 per cent per annum, dominated by motor cycles at 15.4 percent per annum.
Figure 3: Vehicle
Ownership per 100 Household (Sri Lanka)
2.7 Intermediate Modes of Transport
There are several vehicles that could be termed as Intermediate Modes of Transport (IMT) in Sri Lanka. The commonest of these is the two wheeled tilling tractor, now commonly used for regular transport of both goods and passengers. An assessment of the manner in which the different modes are used in rural transport in Sri Lanka can be found in Ellis10, 2001. The Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) has been actively promoting the use of IMTs world over. It maintains that ‘roads are not enough’ by stating that the following aspects should also be considered simultaneous to the provision of roads. • an integrated approach to the provision of transport services and planning is necessary; • in order to ensure smooth transitions between modes of transport there is a need to
promote the adoption of appropriate technologies; • democratic influence over project design and implementation is essential to achieve true
‘ownership’ and local resource mobilizations are more important than external ‘injections’;
• access to credit markets is a crucial element to improve end-user access to IMT; • women play a critical role in local-level household transport; • cultural differences are an important constraint to non-motorized transport use;
10
Ellis, S.D., ‘Case Study for Promoting IMTs in Sri Lanka’, ITDG, 2001
1978/791981/82
1986/871996/97
Motor Car/Van
Motor Cycle
Bicycle
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Amal S. Kumarage 11
2.8 Institutional Framework
The highway and road sector in Sri Lanka is administered and managed by a number of institutions at the national, provincial and local level. The Road Development Authority (RDA) coming under the purview of the Ministry of Transport & Highways was created in 1986 to manage all roads in the country. With the creation of the provincial councils in 1988, the ownership and management of all provincial roads and rural roads (15,743 kms of C and D Class roads) were devolved to the respective provincial administrations. At the provincial level, different agencies, some as authorities others as departments have been set up to manage the road network. At the national level, the RDA has been entrusted to manage the 11,760 kms of national roads in the country that had been identified as A & B class roads.
2.9 Transport Planning & Policy
Since independence, transport provision policy in Sri Lanka has implicitly focused on the main themes: (a) the provision of rural accessibility, (b) affordability of public transport and since of late (c) private sector participation. While the pattern of public investment within the sector clearly demonstrates the emphasis on rural development and of public transport, the attempts to attract significant private investment have so far yielded limited results. In the past few years there have been a number of Policy documents pertaining to the highways and road sub-sectors within transport. The National Road Policy (1998) and Land Transport Policy (2000) have been authored by different institutions. Even though they have all been adopted formally by the relevant ministries and agencies, they seem to have had limited influence in decision making. In general, transport sector policy in Sri Lanka appears only remotely linked to the overall socio-economic policies adopted by successive administrations. For example, the emphasis of industrialization that started in the early 1980s did not evoke a specific transport policy response and consequently, industries have been wary of going to the provinces or rural areas. The absence of specific transport sector strategies has resulted in a largely ‘project-led’ planning environment. Since projects and programs are prepared by individual agencies, there is little ‘policy’ input from the other line ministries such as transport or highways or their agencies. Thus the road sector by and large gets by without adopting any overall national plan and hence any semblance of planning in the road sector is generally a reactive, not a pro-active process. What is known as planning if at all is actually more an exercise in programming, where lists of potential projects are compiled with little to no means for prioritizing them, and budget allocations are made to each to the extent of fund availability. One of the principal factors leading to inefficient resource allocation in the road sector, by consequence, is the absence of a formal process to pro-actively define transport priorities which directly support the country’s national economic development objectives. In the case of investments from the consolidated fund made through the budget allocations of the line agencies, the planning function follows a process that varies from institution to institution. However, the fact that most agencies do not have an overall master plan or development strategy leaves the opportunity for ministers in charge of the sector and other elected representatives at each level of government to make their own proposals. This seems to happen quite often since agencies and ministries lack enough officers with the skills to effectively assess and respond to such proposals. This consequently makes
Amal S. Kumarage 12
agencies vulnerable to accepting projects that have not been adequately planned or evaluated. Moreover, the existence of three levels of government and the lack of distinction between the roles of politicians and administrators combine to twist and tangle the lines of authority and responsibility in the planning of the road network and its management. Each elected representative at central government, i.e. each Member of Parliament has a small discretionary budget of Rs 5 million each for spending on any development project within the district. Since this year, these funds are disbursed through the newly formed Ministries of Regional Development. A significant proportion of these funds is used for road sector projects, particularly in the repair & rehabilitation of existing roads, drains and also the construction of new roads. While this system is effective in keeping the infrastructure systems from falling apart entirely, it is ill-suited to deliver integrated development plans over the longer term. If one accepts the premise that the need for roads is derived from the demand for other goods and services, then the planning of all transport infrastructure and services should in theory always follow (and be integrated with) the development plans for other sectors. In Sri Lanka, at the local level, public and private investments into irrigation schemes, agricultural marketing centers, housing projects are rarely integrated with the complementary transport sector investments. At the regional level, industrial estates, township development programs are similarly deprived of supporting transport sector projects. For example, many industrial estates in the country suffer from a lack of workers simply because of inadequate transport to service a sufficiently large commuter catchment area from the surrounding villages.
2.10 Budget Allocations
The budget allocations for highways sector for the period 1999 to 2001 are shown in Table 5. Till the year 2001, over 90% of funds allocated for the highways sector were for agencies under the central government. The provincial councils receive their allocations of funds through the Finance Commission and the Ministry of Plan Implementation, while the local governments receive their funds through the allocations made by the respective provincial council from their revenues. In addition each elected representative to all three levels of government receives a grant, which also may be used for road projects. The allocation of over Rs 3,000 million for provincial roads in 2001 was as counterpart funding for the Southern Provincial Roads Improvement Project which was also funded by the ADB and was the first such project for provincial roads.
Table 6: Budget Allocations to Highways Sector
1999 2000 2001
RDA Ministry Provincial Council
11
Allocated 8,003.6 9,704 14,309 Spent 6,421.9 8,490
Allocated 18.7 18.9 56 Spent 15.9 17.3
Allocated 3,004 Spent
11
In years 2000 and 2001 foreign assistance for road rehabilitation has been received by the Southern Province.
Amal S. Kumarage 13
As in most sectors, budgeting for recurrent expenditures in the road sector is done separately from capital expenditures, with limited interaction between the two. Increases in recurrent expenditures are based largely on across the board percentage rises in wages, parts and maintenance costs, but does not take into consideration the full impact of new capital expenditures. In the road sector, capital expenditures generate significant recurrent maintenance costs, yet the funds required to ensure proper maintenance over the operating or design life of new projects are rarely forecasted. Life cycle costing is rare. More importantly, there are no mechanisms established to replace or rehabilitate assets upon expiry of their useful life. Most projects, including those that are donor-funded, therefore deteriorate well before their design life and rely on yearly grants for superficial maintenance. This is true for all roads ranging from national to rural. This disconnection between the planning and budgeting processes is particularly acute at the provincial and local levels of government, but also exists within the national ministries and agencies. There is an urgent need to reform the budgeting process at the sectoral level.
Amal S. Kumarage 14
CHAPTER 3 : ASSESSMENT OF MAJOR RURAL ROADS/ACCESS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS, ESPECIALLY BY DONOR AGENCIES
Donor agencies have been an important source of funding for the highways sector investments for many years. The Asian Development Bank, JICA, OECF, Kuwait Fund and EDCF of Korea have recently provided assistance for a number of projects to replace aging roads and bridges, while the World Bank has funded transport sector projects. The ADB is pursuing institutional reforms in the sector as well as infrastructure modernization. Presently, the highways attract the largest portion of foreign assistance with Rs 6,342 million allocated in 2001. Usually foreign donor funding makes up over one half of the total expenditure in highways. The ADB has also given assistance directly to the Provincial Councils for rehabilitation of roads amounting to Rs 1,100 million in 2001.
3.1 World Bank
A World Bank project proposal (World Bank12, 2003) has been prepared for a Rural Poverty Reduction Program to be initiated from 2004. It is to be approved in March 2004. This program to be delivered through the Ministry of Rural Economy is to cover sanitation, flood protection and other infrastructure which includes rural access roads. The overall purpose of this Adaptable Program Loan (APL) would be to support GOSL's strategy as reflected in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) through better access of the poor to basic social and economic infrastructure services and support for productive activities, using the Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach. According to the project office13, the APL intends to be funded over three phases and a period of 12 years to cover approximately 4,500 villages. Under each phase, there will be three main stages. Stage 1 will focus on community empowerment. The village communities will have access to a Village Development Fund, with which they can undertaken investments in social and community infrastructure, productive activities and income generation sub-projects of their choice. Stages 2 and 3 will focus on forming federations of community organizations and building partnerships between the local governments, community federations, private sector and NGOs to achieve sustainable development. Local governments will receive capacity building assistance as part of the project, with the ultimate aim of transferring program execution to them. In this way, the program will build the capacity of local governments to manage development. Under phase 1, initially 24 projects are to be chosen from the Uva and Southern provinces and each village will be offered amounts in the order of around US$ 50 per family. The village would be given the responsibility of determining its use. However preconditions apply for receiving such funds. These being that 10% of the cost should be provided in cash and deposited in a bank account by the village; 20% of the labour inputs would be from the village and that they should show the capacity to maintain the infrastructure. Under this project it is intended to set up a District Core team and Divisional Core Team comprising
12
World Bank ‘Sri Lanka- Rural Poverty Reduction Program, Report # PID 1613, March 2003, http://www.wds.worldbank.org/servlet/multi0page.tx 13
The Project Office is led by its director Dr. Batuwitage, phone number 665119
Amal S. Kumarage 15
government officials, private sector representatives, NGOs etc. Their main role would be to provide some degree of technical support to the project and liaise with the villages. This project by far appears to be the only rural roads project structured on the lines of community participation.
3.2 Asian Development Bank
The ADB has been a major donor in the road sector in Sri Lanka in recent years. This involvement has mostly been for the rehabilitation of National Roads. The ADB’s present involvement in rural roads can be observed in the following projects.
a) The Southern Provincial Roads Improvement Project b) The Road Sector Development Project c) The Southern Provincial Rural Economic Advancement Project
3.2.1 The Southern Provincial Roads Improvement Project
Work under this project commenced in 1998 which was the first road sector project in the provincial road network. The project was implemented through the Ministry of Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government. A total of 609 kms of provincial roads in the Southern Province is to be rehabilitated under five phases. About 400 kms have been completed with the balance targeted for completion by the end of 2003. Local contractors have been utilized for construction. The value of the work is around Rs 3,757 million, where the cost per km is approximately Rs 6.2 million.
3.2.2 The Road Sector Development Project
This project is financed through a loan of US$ 56.5 million and a further US$ 8.5 million from OPEC funds also administered through the ADB. The GoSL counterpart funding amounts to US$ 27.5 million. The project is to be completed by end of 2007. This project includes the re-engineering of the Road Development Authority and the capacity building of the private sector for the national roads. It also has a component for improving selected aspects of bus passenger transport. The major funding is however for the provincial roads network.
Of interest for this report is the projects involvement in four provinces- the North Central, North Western, Uva and Western. The project envisages the improvement of around 980kms of provincial (C& D class) roads. Furthermore 40 kms of roads referred to as community access roads are to be developed. Bridges, culverts and drainage will be upgraded or replaced. The budgeted amount for this is US$ 84.2 million. The executing agency for the provincial roads component is the Ministry of Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government. Under the provincial roads component, institutional strengthening and capacity building programs would be initiated to assist each of the provincial councils to establish a dedicated road function, along with institutional structures and staffing appropriate for the required level of efficiency. It is proposed that the provincial road functions would see their role as road asset managers and concentrate on the planning and management of road maintenance and rehabilitation. The cost for the provincial institutional building is US$ 3.8 million.
According to the Progress Reports, a Project Management Unit has been set up in Colombo and provincial units are to be established in May 2003. Tender contracts for Phase 1 civil works have been sent for approval in April 2003. It is envisaged that 23 contracts for the rehabilitation of provincial roads in all four provinces be awarded in the 4th quarter of 2003
Amal S. Kumarage 16
amounting to disbursements of US$ 4.6 million. The average cost per km for the entire project is estimated at Rs 8.2 million.
3.2.3 The Southern Province Rural Economic Advancement Project
The ABD with co-financing from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund for International Development (OPEC Fund) has provided a loan of US$ 30 million for a project estimated to cost US$ 42.7 million.
This project called the Southern Province Rural Economic Advancement Project which is expected to stimulate economic growth and create income and employment opportunities in Sri Lanka's Southern Province by providing assistance to potential entrepreneurs to identify opportunities in agriculture-based enterprises and provide them with access to technology, markets and credit.
The project is designed to establish an enabling environment to sustain private sector involvement in rural growth by:
• providing enterprise development services and medium and long-term financing for micro-, small-, and medium sized enterprises;
• upgrading and maintaining roads and market infrastructure essential for development;
• demonstrating low-cost and technically sound road maintenance options to be adopted by local authorities after the project ends; and
• upgrading skills in the Ministry of Plan Implementation and the Provincial Government to facilitate private sector participation.
In terms of the rural roads component the project proposes to help arrest the further deterioration of the existing roads. There are an estimated 7,000 kms of rural access roads in the province. In the project, a demonstration of one km from each Pradeshiya Sabha is to be taken up. This is to set the design and technical standards for other roads. A selection criterion is to be approved by the ADB for selecting around 30 kms from each Pradeshiya Sabha totaling 1,000 kms within the province. The criterion includes the connectivity of the road to other roads; identification of its economic purpose; if it is the only means of access to an isolated area and also the road all river crossings should be presently in an operable condition. Furthermore the roads are to be limited to gravel roads and should have all river crossing and also be in a reasonable level of operation at present. This is to ensure that it can be in the future can be maintained at less than Rs 100,000 per km per annum. Under this project, a Memorandum of Understanding is to be signed between the Southern Provincial Council and each Pradeshiya Sabha binding the latter to providing the following contributions for the project over the subsequent years, where the PS is to gradually assume full responsibility for the maintenance of the road.
Works Contribution of the Project Contribution of the P.S. Demonstration Project 100% 0% Initial Upgrading 100% 0% 1st Year Maintenance 75% 25% 2nd Year Maintenance 50% 50% 3rd Year Maintenance 25% 75% 4th Year Maintenance 0% 100%
Amal S. Kumarage 17
The design criterion has been developed by the Department of Local Government for these roads. It includes a compacted foundation, a sub-base and a surface layer. The design standard provides for a 6m width at the base and side slope of 1:1.5 so that a road platform of 4 meters is maintained. Crossfall of 4 percent and drains of 600 mm have been proposed. It is reported that chemical stabilization has been proposed to enhance the longetivity of the road surface. The project is to commence later this year and be completed by end of 2007. The estimated cost for this project is US$ 9.6 million, which works out to nearly Rs 1 million per km. A project office has been opened for this project in Galle14.
3.3 NORAD
Norway has considered Sri Lanka as a priority country for development assistance since 1977. Its present focus is to promote reconciliation and lay the foundation for a durable peace. Development cooperation is also to focus on projects that promote human rights and democratic development, relieve distress and contribute to economic development. Assistance will also be provided for implementing the strategy for private sector development in the South (NORAD15, 2003). It is considered that the biggest challenge for Norwegian aid efforts in Sri Lanka and the greatest obstacle to economic development and poverty reduction is the ethnic conflict. The issue of NORAD’s involvement in the development of rural roads had been raised at last year’s Oslo summit held in conjunction with the peace process. Based on this initiative, the Institute of Policy Studies16 in Colombo is presently preparing a report on Participatory Rural Road Development (Madawela, 2003). This report which is still in preparatory stage is examining the scope of the development of all rural roads in Sri Lanka. It envisages laying down a rationale for the development of rural roads by supporting it with a selection process and potential financial plan to which different donors are to be sought. Its main focus however is to underpin the economic and social benefits in developing rural roads.
3.4 JICA/JBIC
The JBIC has also been involved in the road sector through the partial funding of the Southern Highway and other projects. Its involvement in the provincial roads has been initiated through the recent project to rehabilitate and upgrade the secondary roads in the Sabaragamuwa and Central Provinces. The Implementing Agency for this project is the Ministry of Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government. The amount of the loan is Jap Yen 7,748 million. Around 1,000 kms of roads are to be rehabilitated 2004 through this project which is to be completed by 2008. With the picking up of these two provinces, only the North East Province would be left out from the Provincial Roads Projects, where the ADB has funded five provinces and JBIC two provinces.
14
Contact person is Mr. Leelasena, phone 09-34143 15
NORAD, Sri Lanka Development Cooperation, 2003, http://www.norad.no/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=346 16
Contact person is Mr. Roshan Madawela 431368
Amal S. Kumarage 18
CHAPTER 4 : PROFILE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS WITH CAPACITY FOR IMPLEMENTING PROJECTS ON RURAL ROAD/ACCESS The non-governmental organizations that have potential for contributing to the development of rural roads and access can be identified into the following categories:
a) Technical Planning, Appraisal and Design b) Community Participation based Construction & Development c) Maintenance and Monitoring
Even though Sri Lanka has an extensive rural highway sector, there have been very few initiatives from NGOs in any of the aspects of rural roads or rural transport. Hence, the local expertise is found only among a few agencies that are discussed as follows:
4.1 Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) Sri Lanka
The ITDG has been for many years been engaged in different aspects of rural life. They have a focus on rural roads as well as transport for rural roads. ITDG has all functional capacities required for the execution of rural road projects. ITDG identifies that lack of connectivity and alternative transport modes are some of the major constraints faced by the rural communities to improve their economic and social condition without proper accessibility and mobility to access markets and services. The rural roads do not have adequate funds either for construction or maintenance of rural roads and furthermore the existing contractor system is not a transparent process and the people have no confidence in road building or maintenance. The ITDG approach therefore is to link up the communities with the Pradeshiya Sabhas by getting the participation of both parties with some management responsibilities of the PS transferred to the communities. In doing so, the capacity of the communities and the local skills are strengthened together with enhancing the technical and social mobilizing capacities of the PS officials. ITDG also promotes the participation of the local communities in the design and construction of the road and in training the community on the technology to build the roads with minimal technical inputs from outside. This is intended to enhance their organizational capability and creates a sense of ownership which is expected to generate a desire to maintain the road after construction. ITDG also targets to establish links the community with the local authorities to ensure the sustainability, once ITDG withdraws from the project. The selection of roads is mainly done in consultation with the local authorities to avoid duplication to get their contribution. The roads will be mainly unclassified feeder roads/cart tracks which connect the remote villages with a main road. Since labour intensive methods are used for the construction of earth/gravel roads, ITDG avoids selecting mountainous areas and areas with high rainfall. Typical design configurations adopted for rural roads by ITDG are:
• Carriageway width=4m, • Road shoulder=1:1, 2:1 or 3:1 depending on the availability of lands.
Amal S. Kumarage 19
• Ditch=40cm x 30cm, back sloping depending on the situation. • 7% cross fall (camber) during the earth work and after natural settlement, reshape
the road to get around 5% camber with gravel surfacing. • Gradient of the road less that 10% and use 12% as absolute maximum.
The ITDG has carried out 8 rural road projects over the last five years. The total length is 11 kms with a project cost of Rs 6.5 million. This works out to around Rs 600,000 per km. Under the community transport projects, ITDG takes initiative to assist the communities to identify their access and mobility problems and activities that are affected by them. Thereafter, the they encourage the communities to find solutions to overcome the difficulties by either carrying out the project themselves or by getting the assistance of the statutory or local bodies by offering resources and skills available with the community The detailed project profiles are given in Appendix I. The summarized organizational profile of ITDG is given in the following box.
Box 1: Organizational Profile of ITDG Name of Organization Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) Sri
Lanka
Contact Person Mr. Upali Pannilage, Programme Manager, Access to Infrastructure Services
Contact Details Postal Address: No.5, Lionel Edirisinghe Mawatha Kirulapone Colombo 5 Sri Lanka. Phone: +94 1 829412 – 5 Fax: + 94 1 856188 Email: [email protected]
Source of Funding Project specific restricted funding from donours (e.g. DfID, UK, EU, Community Fund, UK, UK Trusts & individuals etc.
Personnel Resources Skilled staff in different disciplines and development such as Engineering, Sociology, Community Development, marketing, economists and registered outside consultants and experts.
Financial Resources Unrestricted fund allocations from the ITDG Head Office, UK.
Rural Road/Access Projects Completed during last 5 years
8 road projects completed, 3 under construction and 6 community access projects.
Amal S. Kumarage 20
4.2 Sarvodaya Rural Technical Services
Sarvodaya is a well known NGO active in most parts of the country. It has diverse projects from education to infrastructure. It does not have however a roads emphasis, except when a road is part of a wider development effort for a village. In such cases also, assistance is limited to components such as a culvert or bridge. Projects are usually selected through representation made by the village based Civil Society Organizations and its own officers in the field. It is generally estimated that around 40% pf the cost of these projects is borne by the community mostly through the provision of volunteer labour and in some cases free transport. In some instances the villagers are provided some training to look after their own schemes. There has not been a post- evaluation of such projects. The organizational profile is given in Box 2, while details of some projects are given in Appendix 2.
Box 2: Organizational Profile of Sarvodaya Rural Technical Services Name of Organization Sarvodaya Technology Empowerment Division Contact Person Mrs. U.A. Mendis
Contact Details Postal Address:
Rawattawatte Road, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Phone: +94 1 648966 Email: [email protected]
Source of Funding Variety of International NGOs.
Personnel Resources None
Financial Resources None
Rural Road/Access Projects Completed during last 5 years
1 footpath and 37 culverts and around 20 kms of new gravel roads and 20 kms of gravel road repairs in last three years.
4.3 Lanka Forum on Rural Transport Development
This is the only network in Sri Lanka for rural transport development and is affiliated to the International Forum for Rural Transport and Development (IFRTD) in the UK. SIDA is one of the key donors of the IFRTD. It is affiliated to the International Forum for Rural Transport and Development, UK, a global network for rural transport development working closely with international agencies in formulating policies and knowledge sharing. LFRTD has been active in policy formulation such as categorising the Intermediate Means of Transport in the Motor Traffic Act, and popularization of the use of Intermediate Public Transport devices in the rural areas (conversion of lorry chassis in to passenger vehicles) with specific safety aspects and pilot testing of a community managed transport service. They are currently doing a policy papers on poverty and transport and the inclusion of transport as an integral part in the national rural development plans. Some of the ongoing projects are:
Amal S. Kumarage 21
1. Implementation of a community managed bus service pilot project in Kosgala, Ratnapura, to assess the capacity of a community to manager their own transport service.
2. Recommending to the government to conduct an Intermediate Means of Transport (IMT) promotion programme.
3. Conduct of an international seminars and local symposia on IMTs.
4. Carried out a research on Transport and Poverty funded by Centre for Poverty Alleviation.
5. Made policy recommendations to include IMTs as a category in the Motor Traffic Act.
6. Carrying out an advocacy programme to include community participation in rural road development programmes.
7. Carried out a study to find out the use and service of Intermediate Public Transport (Lorry chassis conversions in to passenger transport devices).
4.4 Transportation Engineering Division, University of Moratuwa
The Transportation Engineering Division (TED) at the University of Moratuwa is the premier research centre in transport studies. It has carried out several studies of regional transport as well as research on (a) technical design for rural roads (b) cost-effectiveness studies and (c) appraisal and selection processes. It also has modern road construction testing equipment. It has carried out over 20 road sector projects in the last 5 years, at a cost of around Rs 12 million, of these 3 projects have dealt directly with rural roads and access. Its organizational profile is given in Box 3. The details of these projects are given in Appendix 3.
Box 3: Organizational Profile of TED, University of Moratuwa Name of Organization Transportation Engineering Division, University of
Moratuwa, Sri Lanka Contact Person Dr. Saman Bandara, Head, Transportation Engineering
Division Contact Details Postal Address:
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Phone: +94 1 650567-8 Fax: + 94 1 651216 Email: [email protected]
Source of Funding Project specific grants from research agencies, scholarships from ADB and sponsorship of costs from clients.
Personnel Resources Group of qualified and experienced staff in transport engineering, planning, management and economics. Supplemented by staff from other universities and post graduate alumni in industry. GIS lab with road mapping.
Financial Resources No continuous funding available for research and planning of rural roads
Rural Road Projects Completed during last 5 years
3 projects on rural roads including gravel roads and masterplans for regional and rural access
Amal S. Kumarage 22
CHAPTER 5 : EVALUATIONS AND DOCUMENTATIONS ON RURAL ACCESS There are several recent works on rural roads and community access. One such reference that covers roads as well as motorized and non-motorized transport in rural areas is Starkey et al17, (2002). Some noteworthy documents pertaining to issues facing the development of rural roads and access are discussed together with the relevant documentation for further reference.
5.1 Suitability of Gravel Roads
Gravel roads are not always suitable or desirable. For example, gravel roads in high rainfall can become impassable, similarly dust emanating from gravel roads can be a problems when there is frequent vehicle movements. Furthermore highly trafficked roads and roads with hilly terrain are in most instances not suitable for gravel surfaces.
5.2 Design Criterion for Gravel Roads
Contrary to common belief, gravel roads too need to be designed to different technical standards. This is partly since gravel roads are likely to be upgraded to paved roads with increasing traffic and hence they should have acceptable gradients, curvatures, directness etc. Otherwise, they will entail expensive acquisition at time of upgrading or the benefit of paving would not be realized when the desired speeds cannot be achieved. Moreover, the drainage is of critical concern in gravel roads and should be designed accordingly. Furthermore, not all types of soils are suitable for gravel roads. Hence, soil that is available in the area may have to be checked for essential properties such as compatibility and strength of soil.
5.3 Research on Gravel Roads in Sri Lanka
Two early research papers on gravel road design and construction in Sri Lanka are by Senanayake & Mallawaratchchi18 (1989) and Mallawaratchchi19 (1993). These papers deal with the design parameters such as geometry of road layout, soil characteristics, thickness of gravel surfacing and method of construction have been discussed after testing of different roads. Amerasekera20 (1999) in a M.Eng. thesis has conducted research based on field observations for the prevalent causes for failure of gravel roads in Sri Lanka. Common failures have been identified as
• Construction at unsuitable locations, such as long gradients, high volume sections or heavy rainfall areas or where vehicle speeds tend to be high;
• Construction to poor road geometry, such as sharp bends and steep inclines which reduce the functionality of the road drastically;
• The Road design being inappropriate, with high cross falls, inadequate drains or crossings or lead away drains;
17
Starkey P, S Ellis, J Hine and A. Ternell, Improving Rural Mobility: Options for Developing Motorized and Non-motorized transport in rural areas’ Technical Paper # 525, World Bank 2002 18
Mallawaratchchi, D.P. ‘Earth and Gravel Roads in Sri Lanka’, paper presented at the 12th
World Meeting of the International Road Federation, Madrid Spain, 1993 19
Senanayake, D.D. and D.P. Mallawaratchchi, ‘Low Volume Roads in Sri Lanka’, 1989 20
Amerasekera, R.M. ‘Design and Maintenance of Gravel Roads for Sri Lanka’ M.Eng Thesis, University of Moratuwa, 1999
Amal S. Kumarage 23
• Construction material being inappropriate, if it does not have the required engineering properties, such as plasticity, gradation, hardness and strength of soil or if it not available in the vicinity and has to be hauled from long distances;
• Construction process being inappropriate, if the construction technique does not produce the desired engineering standards such as compaction, permeability and drainage.
5.4 Warrants for Construction of Gravel Roads
Amerasekera (1999) has also developed a set of warrants that could be used as a guide to check if a gravel road is appropriate. These are:
• Low traffic and low vehicle speeds • Level terrain or rolling terrain • Low rainfall area • Roads is of a temporary nature • Road provides access to a village • Low haul distance
The thesis goes on to specify ranges and limits for each design component such as
• Carriageway width (variation with traffic and desired speed)
• Platform width • Shoulder slopes • Cross Slopes • Gradients (based on traffic and
desired speeds) • Curvature (minimum radius) and • Drainage
5.5 Cost of Gravel Roads
Amerasekera (1999) has computed cost estimates for the construction and maintenance of gravel roads constructed to different standards. The cost for 1 km of gravel road with a carriageway width of 3.66 metres; 2x1.25 metre shoulders; 2x2.0 metre road reservation at 1999 Highway Schedule of Rates (HSR) including tax at 12.5% is as follows:
Table 7 : Cost of Gravel Roads
Type of Road and construction detail
Cost in Rs per km at 1999 prices and HSR rates
Construction/Rehabilitation Paved road with up to 75 mm blended aggregate 1,475,000 Paved road with 37.5 mm single sized aggregate 828,000 Gravel road with 150 mm surfacing 403,000 Gravel road with 100 mm surfacing 277,000 Gravel road with 75 mm surfacing 214,000 Periodic Maintenance
Failure due to inadequate Crossfall for drainage
Amal S. Kumarage 24
Paved Road –sand sealing 149,000 Gravelling- regravelling 128,000 Annual Maintenance Paved Road 17,000 Gravel Road 12,500
5.6 Selection of Rural Roads
Since Sri Lanka has a large number of rural roads, all these cannot be redeveloped simultaneously. Furthermore, the level to which they should also be developed is dependent on the possible benefit that is expected from such investments. Internationally, much work has been done on formulating selection criterion for the development of rural roads. Van de Walle21, (2000) examines the constraints faced in performing rigorous appraisal techniques with limited information. The use of a method of collecting poverty related data through a local participatory method has been illustrated for selection of roads in a poverty reduction strategy in Vietnam. A similar selection criterion for rural roads in Sri Lanka has been proposed in the Guidelines for Assessing Public Investment in the Transport Sector (NPD22, 2001). A review of other methods used in developing countries can also be found in Howe and Richards 23(1984).
5.7 Procurement of Community Based Services for Investments in Rural Roads
At the rural level there are large numbers of roads that need to be developed and maintained. In Sri Lanka, there are complaints of rampant irregularities in the procurement of road construction and maintenance services. Hence there is the need for improved procedure, contractual agreements and guidelines. In order to simply the process of procuring services and increase transparency for such rural roads, the World Bank has issued guidelines that include the formulation of project, technical specifications, replenishment of the funds, procedure for payments, technical and financial audits etc. (World Bank24, 1998) . Also technical design and appraisal systems for rural roads have also been developed (World Bank25, 2001) and also different funding options (Calvo26, 1997).
5.8 Transport and the Poor
The Sri Lanka Transport Sector Strategy Study (World Bank27, 1997) noted that poverty alleviation requires a transport policy that is focused on the poor. The lack of such a policy and of relevant information has made it difficult to analyze how the transport sector is serving and helping the poor. It has been assumed that the mobility needs of the poor could be resolved by improving transport networks and public transport services in rural areas. Transport policy should also promote non-motorized modes and provide local rural roads in
21
Van De Walle, Choosing Rural Road Investments to Reduce Poverty, World Bank Report # 1213, 2000 22
Department of National Planning, (contributors, Kumarage Amal S, Ed Storm, T.L. Gunaruwan et al), Assessing Public Investment in the Transport Sector, September 2001 24
World Bank, ‘Guidelines for Simplified Procurements and Disbursement of Community Based Investments, World Bank Report #207616, 1998 25
World Bank, ‘Design and Appraisal of Rural Transport Infrastructure’, World Bank Report # 496, http://www.worldbank.org/transport/publicat/twu-45.pdf, 2001 26
Calvo C.M., ‘Options for Managing and Financing Rural Transport Infrastructure’, Technical Paper # 41, World Bank, 1996 27 World Bank, ‘Sri Lanka Transport Sector Strategy Study, 1997
Amal S. Kumarage 25
acutely disadvantageous areas, where cost-effective public transport service cannot be provided. Transport Policies should therefore address, among other things, the best ways to provide adequate and affordable access for the poor to get to work, particularly in rural and marginal urban areas, opportunities for generating employment through the transport sector, and the strategic use of transport to reduce regional disparities. There are few instances where the transport needs of the poor have been studied specifically and in depth (LFRTD28, 2002). The ADB29 (2002) has completed a recent case-study in three countries, Indonesia, Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Two villages in each country were chosen to compare the before and after affects on poverty of the population served by a road that was redeveloped in the area. In Sri Lanka, two roads in the districts of Kurunegala and Matara were chosen for this. The ADB study a recent most a comprehensive analysis of typical Asian situations covering the inter-relationship of rural roads with aspects of social impacts, political structures and traditional values, governance system, market structures and economic growth. A complete transport survey for this study is found in Kumarage30 (2002).
5.9 Women in Rural Communities
The transport access needs of women in rural communities have also been studied in great detail. One noteworthy reference is Calvo, (1994). Other interventions include training women in riding bicycles, identification of IMTs for common tasks undertaken by women such as carrying of firewood and water. Much work also needs to be done in acceptance of certain modes of travel by communities. For example, in the North and East as well as the North Central Province women are seen to use the bicycle in large numbers. While in the rest of the country most communities appear hesitant to encourage women to use bicycles.
28
LFRTD, Transport & Poverty, report for Centre for Poverty Analysis 29
Asian Development Bank, ‘Impact of Rural Roads in Poverty Reduction: A Cased Study Based Analysis’, October 2002 30
Kumarage Amal S., Transport Situation Report, Impact Evaluation Study of Rural Roads on Poverty Reduction, Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), Colombo, April 2002
Amal S. Kumarage 26
CHAPTER 6 : CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVING RURAL ACCESS IN SRI LANKA This chapter deals with an analytical review of the material covered in the previous chapters identifying challenges in the provision of transport access in rural areas as well as recommending interventions that could be initiated to overcome such challenges.
6.1 Inventorising Rural Access Roads in Sri Lanka
As shown earlier Sri Lanka has around 80,000 kms of Rural Access roads. However, there is no proper inventory of these roads. In order to approach the problems of the network of rural roads, it is imperative to begin with an up to date and accurate inventory. This inventory should cover critical information such as location, name, details of construction, type of road, location and description of bridges, culverts and their condition, traffic and user levels, travel speeds, weather related impediments and ownership. It would be most useful to have this
A Class
B Class
C Class
1 st Order
2 nd Order
3 rd Order
4 th Order
5 th Order
GALLE MATARA
HAKMANATANGALLE
WEERAKETIYA
COLOMBO
MEDAGAMABELIGALGODELLA
MIDDENIYA
Centre
Centre
Centre
Centre
D/E Class
Centre
Amal S. Kumarage 27
complex system of rural roads super-imposed on the national and provincial roads network and presented preferably on a Geographic Information System (GIS) for easy and visual understanding of the location and connection parameters. This would assist in the identification of critical links in the road hierarchy (Figure 4) in order to ensure that the rural areas are connected to different markets and centers through a well formulated hierarchy of roads. As mentioned earlier there are no comprehensive inventories especially at the levels of local government. Such a system is presently been developed by the University of Moratuwa for the Kaduwela Pradeshiya Sabha. This is a GIS based system that has critical road geometry such as width, length, surface condition and locational parameters such as villages served also other features such as bridges, culverts etc. This prototype database would be available in a few months time. In this particular effort, other infrastructure such as bus services, telephone availability as well as water etc are also added. Socioeconomic data such as population, households, livelihood etc as well as service availability in terms of availability of schools, health care facilities etc could also be added easily.
6.2 Formulation of Improved and Cost Effective Technical Design Standards
As shown in previous chapters, the cost estimate for gravel roads vary sharply between estimates made through field studies and research and consultants on foreign funded projects. The former estimates range between Rs 200,000 to 400,000, whereas the latter is more than double. When a large extent
of rural roads has be developed, the cost effectiveness is critical or otherwise only small fraction of the network may be developed leaving large sections un-developed. This has happened in the national road network where expensive rehabilitation projects have over a period of over 15 years only allowed around 1,000 kms to be rehabilitated of a network of nearly 12,000 kms. Moreover, the technical designs recommended through research stand out against those provided by consultant in the donor assisted projects. While the latter appear to impose several problems, it does not seem convincing that such standards have been developed on scientific lines or even on the basis of a cost effective design
6.3 Formulation of Guidelines for Construction Detail
Construction processes for gravel roads vary with changing terrain, availability of material and expertise of labour. There is presently no manual or guideline available that deals with locally appropriate construction methods or suitable materials or designs that need to be followed to ensure the best return for the investment in terms of longer life of the road and lower maintenance costs.
6.4 Formulate Criterion or Warrants to determine suitability of Gravel Roads
Effects of Poor Design Standards –Erosion of Soil
Amal S. Kumarage 28
As pointed out earlier, not all roads are suitable for paving and vice versa. Well developed warrants needs to be formulated based on field observations and cost benefit analysis to facilitate the selection of gravel roads for redevelopment so that rural access roads can be built according to the most cost effective design.
6.5 Improve Selection Criterion
Not all rural access roads can be developed at once. Hence a selection or prioritization method would have to be developed. While some such methods have been developed abroad as well as locally, widespread application may provide an opportunity of improving the selection process. Here again while international practices have been initiated (as documented earlier), a locally developed system would stand in good use. One such effort has been documented in the report titled ‘Assessing Capital Investment in the Transport Sector’. That particular approach uses basic population parameters and the degree of present traffic generation on an existing road in order to determine the possible increase in return from providing an improved access. Standard values are provided for Value of Travel Time savings as well as other savings in the movement of goods. This makes such savings readily computable from a basic traffic count and estimate of population. A case study on how such an estimate can be made is also given in an Appendix to the report. Further improvements to this method are clearly needed and possible. The primary limitation is its reliance on economic benefits cost analysis as the only criterion. This can be supplemented by incorporating the BCA to a system of multi-criterion ranking which also would include non-economic (and unquantifiable) benefits, such as historical values, political realities, subscription to other development policies or programs etc. This would make the selection criterion more fluid and flexible even though set within a rational selection process. It appears that improving the available system would be the best way forward rather than initiating the induction of overseas models that would take time and resources to calibrate and test adequately.
6.6 Financing the Construction of Rural Roads
Even at the most conservation estimate the re-development of the 80,000 kms of rural access roads would cost in excess of Rs 20 billion or US$ 200 million. Clearly this is a very large investment and the finance would have to be raised from appropriate sources. There are some proto type projects in the present donor assisted projects (e,g, the community contributory type in the World Bank funded Rural Poverty Reduction Program)which may need to be assessed and evaluated to ensure that the best financing arrangements are reached.
6.7 Design of Community Participation in Construction & Maintenance of Roads
Community participation in the design, construction and maintenance of rural access roads is the key to a sustainable rural road network. Even though some NGOs have initiated community based projects and the ADB project intends a close participation with Pradeshiya
Amal S. Kumarage 29
Sabhas, more innovative forms of participation may have to be tried out to arrive at the most workable arrangement suitable for Sri Lanka society. Perhaps even here, different geographic regions may prefer different methods. However, it appears that at present with different donors experimenting with different models, there is some degree of comparison between villages in certain areas. There is a possibility that some villages would not be interested in generating part funding if they are aware of other donor funding schemes that could be obtained without any contributory funding.
6.8 Financing the Maintenance of Rural Access Roads
Financing the maintenance of the rural road network at a most conservative estimate which assumes that annual and periodic maintenance amounts to approximately 20% of the cost of construction of a new road, then an allocation of Rs 4 billion or US$ 40 million is required annually. This is several times greater than the amounts currently available. Thus a clear policy has to be formulated on the capacity to generate such funds and indeed the mechanism of its distribution. The current interest in setting up the Road Fund might be a suitable opportunity to attach the needs of the rural road network for consideration therein.
6.9 Study of Rural Transport Needs
In the area of transport needs, very little scientific study has been carried out to determine the actual transport needs of rural communities. The nature of trip making, the value of such travel, the facility expected and vehicle ownership require much greater understanding in any future work on developing rural transport access on a rational basis.
6.10 Design of Multi Purpose Rural Transport Vehicle
Publicly transport in rural areas is mostly in the form of buses and unregulated vans and trucks. These vehicles vary in shape and size and hardly relate to the transport needs of the passengers. In rural areas, vehicles need to be used for a number of purposes. Carrying office and factory workers and school children to the town centre, shoppers and patients to hospital, all require different transport facilities. Most vehicles need to carry significant amounts of goods in addition to its passengers. The interior design of these vehicles hardly takes account of such needs as passengers and goods often get in each others way. Hence, there appears to be scope for some indigenous research in the development and popularization of a multi purpose rural transport vehicle in Sri Lanka.
6.11 Promotion of IMTs
The last few years has seen the active promotion of Intermediate Modes of Transport in rural areas of Sri Lanka. However, the penetration is still superficial and much work needs to be done in this regard.
6.12 Improving Rural Bus Services
In Sri Lanka, where the population density is one of the highest in the world, buses continue to be an economical means of providing transport even to rural areas. However rural bus services once the pride of the State-operated transport services are now unreliable and run down. Concession arrangements have to be worked out for such services to identify services
Amal S. Kumarage 30
and trips that may need external support or cross subsidy from more profitable services in the area.
6.13 Promoting Ownership and use of Bicycles in Rural Areas
As shown earlier, the bicycle is the most prevalent vehicle in Sri Lanka. However it is one vehicle that cannot be purchased on credit or loan. In addition to credit schemes, an active campaign is required to encourage the use of bicycles especially its use by women in certain parts of the country who keep away due to social considerations.
Amal S. Kumarage 31
CHAPTER 7 : REFERENCES: • Amerasekera, R.M. ‘Design and Maintenance of Gravel Roads for Sri Lanka’ M.Eng Thesis,
University of Moratuwa, 1999. • Asian Development Bank, ‘Impact of Rural Roads in Poverty Reduction: A Cased Study Based
Analysis’, October 2002. • Calvo C.M., ‘Case Study on the Role of Women in Rural Transport: Access of Women to
Domestic Facilities’, SSATP Working Paper #11, World Bank, 1994. • Calvo C.M., ‘Options for Managing and Financing Rural Transport Infrastructure’, Technical Paper
# 41, World Bank, 1996. • Department of National Planning, (contributors, Kumarage Amal S, Ed Storm, T.L. Gunaruwan et
al), Assessing Public Investment in the Transport Sector, September 2001. • Ellis, S.D., ‘Case Study for Promoting IMTs in Sri Lanka’, ITDG, 2001. • Fernando P, and U. Pannilage, ‘The Rural Transport Policy Study’, ITDG, 1993. • Howe, et al., “Rural Roads and poverty alleviation”, Intermediate Technology Publications,
London, 1984. • Lanka Forum for Rural Transport Development, Transport and Poverty, 2002. • Kumarage Amal S, Formulation of Policy Framework for Poverty Alleviation: Transport,
UNDP/World Bank, Colombo, November 1998. • Kumarage Amal S., Transport Plan for Avissawella Town Development Project, 1999. • Kumarage Amal S, Study on Improving the Accessibility & Mobility of the Highway Network in Uva
Province, UNDP Colombo, September 2000. • Kumarage Amal S. and Genevieve Connors, An Introduction to Road Funds- A Conceptual Case
Study for Sri Lanka, Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport in Sri Lanka, July 2001. • Kumarage Amal S., ‘Household Expenditure on Transport and Public Transport’ World Bank,
2001b. • Kumarage Amal S., Transport Situation Report, Impact Evaluation Study of Rural Roads on
Poverty Reduction, Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), Colombo, April 2002. • Mallawaratchchi, D.P. ‘Earth and Gravel Roads in Sri Lanka’, paper presented at the 12
th World
Meeting of the International Road Federation, Madrid Spain, 1993. • Madawela, R., ‘Participatory Rural Road Development – First Draft (to be published), Institute of
Policy Studies, Sri Lanka, May 2003. • NORAD, Sri Lanka Development Cooperation, 2003,
http://www.norad.no/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=346. • PricewaterhouseCoopers, Transport Sector Pilot Study- Issues Paper, Public Expenditure
Management Systems, April 2002. • Senanayake, D.D. and D.P. Mallawaratchchi, ‘Low Volume Roads in Sri Lanka’, 1989. • Starkey P, S Ellis, J Hine and A. Ternell, Improving Rural Mobility: Options for Developing
Motorized and Non-motorized transport in rural areas’ Technical Paper # 525, World Bank 2002. • Starkey P., ‘Local Transport Solutions: People, Paradoxes and Progress’, SSATP Working paper
#56, World Bank, 2001. • Transportation Engineering Division, (TED), Traffic & transportation Plan for the Shifting of the
Wholesale Trading Activities from Manning Market to Orugodawatte, Colombo, University of Moratuwa, November 2000.
• Transportation Engineering Division, (TED), Transport Plan for Avissawella Town Development Project, University of Moratuwa, August 1999.
• Van De Walle, Choosing Rural Road Investments to Reduce Poverty, World Bank Report # 1213, 2000.
• World Bank ‘Sri Lanka- Rural Poverty Reduction Program, Report # PID 1613, March 2003, http://www.wds.worldbank.org/servlet/multi0page.tx
• World Bank, ‘Design and Appraisal of Rural Transport Infrastructure’, World Bank Report # 496, http://www.worldbank.org/transport/publicat/twu-45.pdf, 2001.
• World Bank, ‘Guidelines for Simplified Procurements and Disbursement of Community Based Investments, World Bank Report #207616, 1998.
• World Bank, ‘Sri Lanka Transport Sector Strategy Study, 1997
.
Amal S. Kumarage 32
APPENDIX 1: PROFILES OF ITDG PROJECTS FOR LAST 5 YEARS Project # 1: Malberigama Village Road –Hambantota District
Source of Funding UK Trustees and Southern Province Development Authority
Project Cost Rs.1.5 million
Location of Project Malberigama, Bedigama,Weeraketiya
Brief Description of Project 3 Km gravel road completed using labour intensive
technologies with community participation and management. Located in dry zone ,Road completed in year 2000
Project # 2 Heenbunna village road- Hambantota district
Source of Funding Plan International
Project Cost Rs.325,000
Location of Project Heenara, Heenbunna, Weeraketiya
Brief Description of Project Completed 1 Km gravel using labour intensive technologies
with community participation. Located in dry zone ,Road completed in year 2001. Another 1.2 Km is under construction.
Project # 3 Kohugoda village road-Matara district
Source of Funding Australian High commission (AUSAID), UK trustees
Project Cost Rs.1 million
Location of Project Kuhugoda, Akuressa
Brief Description of Project Village on a hilly terrain, 500 ft above sea level. The upper
section of the village road was rugged and difficult to travel even by foot. 2 Km road opened in Feb.2000
Project # 4
Katepolakande in Mulatiyana PS-Matara
Source of Funding
UK Trustees and Mulatiyana Pradeshiya Sabha
Project Cost
Rs.500,000
Location of Project
Ketapolakanda, Mulatiyana in Matara district
Brief Description of Project Wet zone. Hilly area. Rocky terrain, 1.5Km Completed in year 2001.
Amal S. Kumarage 33
Project # 5 Elliyadde village road in Panvila – Kandy
Source of Funding
Community Fund-UK and UK trustees
Project Cost
Rs.400,000
Location of Project Elliyadda, Baddegama,Panvila
Brief Description of Project
Wet zone. Hilly area .1 Km completed and another 1Km under construction
Project # 6 Lathugala village road- Ampara District
Source of Funding
Oxfam
Project Cost
Rs.500,000
Location of Project Lathugala, Uhana, Ampara Brief Description of Project Dry weather, Moderately hilly condition. 1Km completed with
community participation Project # 7 Angulgamuwa-Kirwatta village road in Kurunegala
district Source of Funding Plan International Project Cost Rs.1 million Location of Project Angulgamuwa, Pansiyagama, Polpithigama Brief Description of Project 2 Km with a bridge and 2 large culverts, 4 small culverts.
Dry weather in moderately hilly but difficult terrain with marsh land etc.
The following are some of the interventions in addition to the Rural Roads project, carried out by ITDG. Community Transport projects
1. A footpath in Elliyadde, Wattegama, Kandy district in the Central Province. 2. Bridge in Ratmalgaswewa in Puttalam district in the North Central Province. 3. A community water supply scheme in Elliyadde to cut down travel to access water. 4. A pre-school in Ottukulama in Nikaweratiya in North Western province to cut down
travel of 5 kilometers. IMT development
1. Five model Intermediate Modes of Transport developed under the IMT project by trained manufacturers. Of this over 600 bicycle trailers have been manufactured locally and disseminated with majority of them are used for income generation activities. Also a motorcycle trailer has been developed and approved by the Commissioner of Motor Traffic.
2. A community managed bus transport service in Ratmalgaswewa in Sabaragamuwa Province.
Furthermore, the demand for alternative transport modes in the North and East province is being addresses at the present time.
Amal S. Kumarage 34
APPENDIX 2: PROFILES OF SARVODAYA PROJECTS FOR LAST 5 YEARS Project # 1: Culverts in Puttalam District in the North Western
Province Source of Funding International NGOs
Project Cost Around Rs 12,000/= per culvert from donors and rest of the
cost from the community. Location of Project Keertisinghagama.Sembatte, Iranawila, Kuratihena,
Miwewa. Brief Description of Project 2 feet diameter concrete hume pipes used
Project # 2 Footpath in Ranmulla in Kandy District in the Central
Province
Source of Funding International NGOs
Project Cost Rs 337,310/= inclusive of the cost of community contributions.
Location of Project Ranmulla, Kandy
Brief Description of Project 340 metres long footpath, 2 feet 6 inches width concrete sections.
Project # 3 Foot bridge in Norton Bridge, Central Province
Source of Funding International NGOs
Project Cost Rs 192,433/= inclusive of the cost of community
contributions. Location of Project Vidulipura, Norton Bridge
Brief Description of Project 8 feet wide and 15 feet pan with rubble masonry abutments.
Presently managed by villagers. Project # 4
Gravel Roads
Source of Funding
International NGOs
Project Cost
New gravel roads @ Rs 350,000/= per km inclusive of the cost of community contributions. Rehabilitation or Major repair of existing gravel roads @ Rs 150,000/= per km inclusive of community contributions.
Location of Project
Various districts
Brief Description of Project Around 6 ½ kms of new roads and 6 kms of repair has been done per year on average. These roads have been entrusted to the communities to manage.
Amal S. Kumarage 35
APPENDIX 3: PROFILES OF UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA PROJECTS FOR LAST 5 YEARS Project # 1: Design of Gravel Roads for Sri Lanka
Source of Funding University Research funds and Road Development
Authority.
Project Cost Location of Project Uva Province, Southern and North Central Provinces Brief Description of Project Construction of few sections of gravel roads to new design
and construction standards. A monitoring program is on-going.
Project # 2 Masterplan for Kaduwela Pradeshiya Sabha Source of Funding Ministry of Urban Public Utilities Project Cost Rs 4 Million Location of Project Kaduwela Pradeshiya Sabha, Western Province. Brief Description of Project A masterplan with GIS mapping of all infrastructure and
services including all classes of roads and transport service facilities.
Project # 3 Accessibility study for Uva Province Source of Funding UNDP Project Cost Rs 330,000/= Location of Project Uva Province Brief Description of Project A study to identify the rural-urban linkages and the provision
of infrastructure facilities to improve access and economic development of the Uva Province.