Sindh Road Network Master Plan costing $6m approved

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has approved $6 million (approximately Rs834 million) Sindh Road Network Master Plan and Institutional Strengthening Trainings, under which a detailed study of existing road network will be carried out.

He approved the plan on Friday during a meeting at the CM House. The meeting was attended by Works & Services Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Planning & Development Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, the finance and works secretaries, Chief Engineer Prem Tiraj and others.

Briefing the chief executive, the works minister said the previous road network master plan was devised in 1995 but it had never been updated. He added that the assessments would identify the network of main roads required to be linked to markets and the main areas of agricultural production.

The component would assess the current status of transport system by surveying the existing condition of roads and traffic movement. Based on the survey, transport sector data, economic development projection, additional road network, transport requirements and financing capacity would also be estimated for the next 20 years.

Under this head, the trainings would be provided to staff of the works & services department. Trainings would cover road asset management, road operation and maintenance, road planning and administration.

The terms of reference of the Provincial Highways Network Master Plan 2020-2040 includes data collection for 53,000km-long road network, preparation of a plan and proposed policy, condition survey of roads through high-definition geospatial camera systems, condition survey of structures (bridges and culverts), social and environmental safeguards. Under the plan, road asset management system implementation and institutional strengthening review of organisational structure and training would be conducted.

The CM said that a master plan sets out the approach to the future. “It helps in understanding the need for investment and makes it easy to identify major strategic interventions.” Shah said that in order to provide an improved level of service, collection of data on the present condition and traffic were required so that forecast for future demand and service requirements could also be made.

The meeting was told that the data collection of pavement condition and survey would be made through a laser-equipped vehicle in which safeguard issues would also be assessed.