Lack of funds hampers road maintenance
Isaac Pinielo | Thursday January 19, 2017 15:47
Roads department director, Kgakgamatso Kalasi told the media this week that government had embarked on a massive road maintenance programme in the country but the major drawback was lack of funding.
She noted that a roads condition survey of 2014 recommended an ideal budget of P3.08 billion per annum using the recommended multi-year preventative and rehabilitation plans for the next 10 years.
“Construction and maintenance costs, which have risen faster than inflation, helped contribute to the dwindling funds,” Kalasi said.
Earlier on the roads department had indicated that it receives a maintenance budget of just over P330 million for roads maintenance projects, which was augmented by another P160 million collected annually from the road fund levy.
However, the director said there is still a shortfall needed to keep national road network properly maintained.
According to Kalasi, the department is responsible for just over 18,000 kilometres with 6,400km of paved and remaining unpaved linking built up areas. The road asset value was last recorded at P43 billion as at 2014.
“Infrastructure condition is declining with more than 10% of paved roads in poor and very poor condition,” she said.
A few years ago, the roads department procured 21 new road motor graders at a cost of approximately P53 million which was said to have been funded from the road fund levy, a 20 thebe per litre charge on petroleum products sold.
In the 2016 budget, the finance ministry recommended P2.02 billion for the Ministry of Transport and Communications, which was meant to cover maintenance of roads, among other things.
Some major maintenance works are ongoing in the Sefophe-Martin’s Drift road, Tsau-Nokaneng, Maun-Toteng, and Gantsi–Tsootsha roads. There are also civil works contracts for two output and performance-based road contract (OPRC) packages covering a total of 335km in the southern region.