Rs 3,665 million allocated for roads in Punjab budget

The Punjab government has set aside Rs 36,650 million for road sector in the budget for 2011-12, showing an increase of over 31.71percent compared to 2010-11 revised allocation. The vision for Punjab's road sector aims at upgrading, augmenting and maintaining a modern road network in the province under most cost-effective, optimised and quality-oriented development and management regime.
Roads are a predominant mode of transportation in the country commuting more than 90 percent of passenger and freight traffic with average yearly growth rate of 4.5 percent and 10.5 percent respectively. To tackle the large increases in the in traffic population densities, roads network in the province had expanded to over 82,000 km by the year 2009.
Estimated value of road assets in the province exceeds Rs 200 billion. In recent years, overall demand for road transport has grown at 7 to 8 percent per year, which surpasses the average GDP growth rate over the last decade. With transfer of the major part of farm-to-market/district roads network to the district governments since devolution, the provincial road sector has been focusing on consolidating and maintaining the existing inter-district roads, while catering for rehabilitation of the rural-access roads under an umbrella programme, the budget documents say.
In addition to above, the present development portfolio for the province includes major urban and inter-city road projects along with Lahore Ring Road. As per budget documents, sectoral priorities identified for Punjab's road sector in the MTDF (2011-14) are: consolidate existing road assets through rehabilitation/improvement and upgradation; complete ongoing schemes for roads/bridges; developing province-wide secondary routes (covering north-south and east-west corridors) linking national motorways/trade corridors to foster economic opportunities via meeting, expanding domestic and international travel and trade demands; improve average road densities to achieve optimal traffic density levels in consonance with increasing transportation requirements and targeted economic growth in the province; implement initiatives to improve road safety and axle-load conditions to achieve substantial reduction in road accidents and avert premature road distress; undertake widening/improvement of existing roads to 20 feet/24 feet width for roads with traffic densities exceeding 800 VPD - targeting to achieve full coverage over the medium term (up to 2018), dualisation of main arteries conveying 8,000 VPD by the year 2025; improve geometry of existing roads and removal of black spots; and undertaking improvements in road design and specifications.
Moreover, Punjab Development Programme (PDP) will be continued with an allocation of Rs 3,000 million to finance locally identified small-scale development schemes for improvement of local social infrastructure and also to generate employment for poverty reduction. Punjab Municipal Improvement Services Project would be continued for development of municipal infrastructure ie water supply, sewerage, solid waste management, drainage, street lighting, roads, parks, bus stands, bridges, fire fighting and capacity building of selected TMAs.