Sri Lanka spends Rs. 200 million on road development each month—the highest in the region—with the bulk of this spent on wages, leaving very little to be spent on materials and maintenance on machinery and vehicles the Secretary of the Ministry of Highways and Road Development said yesterday.
Secretary Sirisena Amarasekera said that the Road Development Authority (RDA) had 10,000 employees in its payroll, while the National Highways Authority (NHA) of India had about 700. He said that the monthly road development bill was high because a large workforce had to be maintained, where as the NHA outsourcers most of its work.
"The two country share similar cultures and both inherited similar institutional structures from the British. While we had changed and reformed our institutions, with the establishment of the RDA and Urban Development Authority, 30 to 40 years before India, we have made little progress but when India made those changes they have been able to progress, their road network is much better than ours," he said.
He said that while Sri Lanka made institutional changes, the changes were poorly managed.
"Change is resisted wherever it is, but it is particular to Sri Lanka. We share similarities in culture, environment and institutions with India and we are lagging behind.
"Sri Lankan’s are more reluctant to change. They like to think that what ‘was’ is better than what ‘will be’ and like dwelling in history. Do not resist change. Adapt. Learn," Amarasekera said addressing officials of the RDA who gathered for a workshop on Technical and Scientific Cooperation between Sri Lanka and India.
"It is an inherent problem we have. We have 10,000 staff for the 11,600km of major highways. Our road maintenance cost is the highest in the region because we have to maintain this large workforce and the workforce is unable to adapt to change," he said.
The RDA and NHA signed a MOU yesterday which will focus on technical and scientific cooperation in highway construction, maintenance and management of roads which will facilitate the exchange of expertise, developments in research and knowledge.
While the agreement is valid for five years, the Ministry of Highways and Road Development hopes to establish a long term technical collaboration.
The expected outcome of the MOU is to enhance the capacity of the RDA to have best-connected, optimally designed and maintainable road network. In order to overcome the capacity constraints in the road sector, the government has planned a 10 year development programme, The RDA said in a release.
Amarasekera said that according to the National Road Master Plan, 4,000km of major highways, out of about 11,600km, will be improved during the next ten years.
"One might ask how this will be done when for the past 20 years only 2,000km have been improved. There will be challenges and difficulties. We cannot change overnight, but we can change gradually," he said and urged the RDA staff to learn from India’s experience and expertise.
"We must learn how to outsource and our procurement system needs to be examined as well," he said.
Sri Lanka would be the main beneficiary of the technical collaboration while India too has something to gain.
"India can learn from Sri Lanka, at least from the mistakes we have made," said M. B. S. Fernando, Chairman, RDA.
The Asian Development Bank, World Bank, JBIC and other agencies have infused a total of US $450 million to develop Sri Lanka’s roads and highways, an official of the Treasury said.
"The US $450 million are loans, so we have to make them viable and beneficial," he said adding that successive governments and their policy initiatives had not fully got to grips with road restructuring and rehabilitation effectively.
