On the Road to Recovery !

Hence, it is felt that it is always better to retain the design consultant instead of paying him off once the designing is over. Add to it the lack of authentic traffic data. The plans also go haywire as authentic traffic data does not exist in the country. There is also no research and development taken up by either the public or the private sector in the field. Hence, planning is often based on faulty figures. Often, a road takes much heavy load than it was planned and built for.

Unskilled Labour

The road infrastructure industry often laments the dearth of skilled labourers to carry out the work. This point is raised at every conference and seminar. The industry feels that workers often do not understand the proper procedure to carry out the road construction work. And there is no place to train them other than putting them straight on to the job. Often, a new technology finds few knowledgeable workers. Babu explains, “There is a huge dearth of skilled and unskilled labour force considering the pace of development of road infrastructure. Lack of training facilities, insistence of contractors on such training requirements, etc., could be some of the reasons but a change with regard to quality consciousness at the basic workforce level has the potential to bring in transformation.” Bali agrees, “Lack of skilled manpower in the Civil Engineering (CE) sector is a major ‘pain’ point for the end user of construction equipment. Mechanisation and benefits of technology cannot be fully effective unless the manpower behind it is skilled. Hence, training and constant skills’ upgradation of operators & supervisors is an imperative for the industry.”

There is no single window for various clearances for the projects. Once awarded, the developers often execute the projects properly. However, long term financing avenues are few. There is no security for lenders of road projects — they are at high financial risk. Since the bidding for the projects is always very aggressive, it later becomes nearly impossible to execute the project at the quoted rate.— Sudhir Hoshing

However, Rohatgi differs, “Skills exist, perhaps lower level and mid level workers might need a little upgradation of skills. But that cannot be the reason of bad quality of roads. The main reason is whatever is handed to us is accepted by us. May be we need to try different models of procurement. Probably the incentive structure is not good.” Even Raju feels labour is no hurdle: “Road construction is a very mechanised process – it is not labour intensive. Skilled labour is primarily required for running the mechanised equipment like the pavers, etc.”

LeeBoy India, a wholly-owned subsidiary established by Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd’s (ST Engineering) land systems arm, Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd (ST Kinetics), is taking initiatives to address this issue of labour though, informs Bali. It is offering trained Operator Technicians to its customers. “They will undergo intensive training not just on operating the equipment competently, but they will also focus on preventive maintenance and troubleshooting to ensure a longer lifespan for the equipment, higher uptime and lower maintenance costs. The LeeBoy training academy will be ready by the mid of this year, where our Operator Technicians will undergo the initial training and for upgrading of their skills and knowledge,” informs Bali.

Maintenance meter

As has been discussed above too, maintenance of roads is not our strength. Not that these do not have solutions. It’s just that these solutions are often not sought. Potholes must be immediately repaired. Lack of maintenance often leads to broken roads which remain broken for years at times. There are pothole patchers but not many governments use them. There is almost always a drainage problem in the roads but these are rarely sorted out by the administration. Craters are formed due to substandard materials and improper maintenance but unless and until there is a media outcry, not much is seen to be done in this regard. Debris, uprooted facilities, huge stones on the roads, broken or ill-functioning signals are other issues.

Monsoon Matters

Often, monsoon brings with it road woes. In monsoon, roads get damaged and safety gets hampered. Roads in India are often not able to take the double pressure of traffic and the rains. Babu feels that instead of blaming the technology, what is important is the right selection of technology and then, the maintenance. He opines, “In most of the cases, this situation is man-made and we need not blame technology for that. Selection of right technology may be crucial for success in any case. Yes, maintenance is a major issue and it would require strict enforcement by the Authorities to ensure that proper and timely maintenance is done for better road condition. We need to put greater emphasis on maintenance of assets once they are created.” Raju concurs, “Good construction material is paramount for roads and highway work. Punj Lloyd is extremely stringent about quality in all its projects and that is how the highways executed by Punj Lloyd are state-of-the-art. Some examples are the Vadodara Halol Tollway, Jaipur Bypass, Belgaum Maharashtra, etc. Quality has to be emphasised upon, not just cost through the L1 bidding system. Contractors delivering poor roads should be debarred from bidding process.”

Not a rocky road still

So, what then is the solution? The solution is a good attitude to turn these various challenges into huge opportunities. That is better than kicking the can down the road. Says Raju, “We have made good progress especially in view of the Golden Quadrilateral project. The Indian road network, though extensive, still remains inadequate in terms of spread, and is unable to handle high traffic density at many places and has poor riding quality in some segments. However, having appreciated the need to augment the road infrastructure in a big way and reach tier 2 and tier 3 cities as well, the Government of India has initiated multi-pronged development schemes in this sector.”

Bali echoes the sentiment, “India has made reasonable progress in building the road infrastructure in the country in the last few years. However, we have a long way to go. Of the total 50,000 kms of national highway development taken up by NHAI, 16,000 kms have been completed and 12,000 kms are under implementation. NHAI is working on awarding the balance 22,000 kms of the 4-lane highway development on DBFOT format. The lessons learnt in building these highways should change the focus from mere construction to safe and efficient operations. India now needs to build roads in a hurry. Therefore, the various stakeholders who can influence this imperative going forward will need to join forces towards this common goal.”

Adds Babu: “Rather than every kilometer constructed, every pair of towns/cities connected would make enormous economic sense in terms of connectivity. The pace of construction has been fast compared to what has been in the past, notwithstanding the slowdown in the last couple of years. There are a few things to be kept in mind though:

1. There should be some grading system for Highway projects executed according to their technical excellence/rating. This should be done by some independent body and updated on a yearly basis.
2. Huge amount of data is being collected on traffic on various roads across the country by both Central and State Authorities consistent with the requirements of the Concession Agreement. This data should be published on websites of the concerned authorities so that the trends in the growth of traffic on various roads across the country are understood in a greater way by all concerned stakeholders – road users, lenders/financial institutions, bidders, consultants, etc. This would also bring about greater visibility on the requirement of capacity augmentation and level of service on various roads.
3. The authorities should be more transparent in land acquisition process. At least all land records should be made available to the concessionaire at the time of awarding of work and for delays in land acquisition, the concession period should extend proportionately on an automatic basis without too much left for discretion.”

So, can we get the show on the road?