9.5.19 Technological Upgradation - During the Seventh Plan, the Railways initiated action to release the system from a situation of technology freeze which had persisted for more than two decades. The massive scale of replacements provided an opportunity for the introduction of new technologies and the much desired modernisation of infrastructure. In fact, in several areas, upgradation could go hand in hand with
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replacements. The Railways would need to explore the potential in new areas like higher axle loads, and improved track geometry.
9.5.20 Manpower Planning - The manpower costs in the working expenses of the Railways form a sustantial proportion. Higher level of mechanisation and technology upgradation are necessary intruments to handle growing volumes of traffic and to achieve economies of scale. In the process, rationalisation of deployment of manpower would become possible. In addition, pension liability for the staff is increasing substantially requiring considerably stepped-up annual contributions. From a level of 5.45 per cent of the gross traffic receipts during the Seventh Plan, the requirements are anticipated to increase to over 8 per cent during the Eighth Plan period.
9.5.21 Containerisation - While the world over, containerisation has been increasingly adopted, the process has been slow in India. Containerisation offers a number of advantages not only to the Railways in terms of improved wagon turn round and reduced multiple handling but also to the users, in term of safe transportation and quick delivery. In view of this, it would be appropriate to hasten the on-going programme during the Eighth Plan, by exploring the possibilities of involving the private initiative for expanding the inland depot network as also to provide containers.
Traffic Projections for the Eighth Plan 9.6.1 A freight traffic level of 443.4 million tonnes per annum is expected to be carried by the Railways by the end of the Eighth Plan. On the basis of an estimated average lead of around 715 KMs, the total transport output is estimated at 318.5 billion tonne KMs. (BTKMs). The commodity wise breakup of the total traffic is given in the Annexure-9.6. In respect of passenger traffic, a target of annual growth of 5% is assumed.
Outlay for the Eighth Plan 9.6.2 For the Eighth Plan, the approved outlay of Rs. 27,202 crores. This includes a budgetary support of Rs. 5375 crores and the balance is to be set from inteinal and extra budgetary resources.
Strategy Visualised 9.7.1 Given the constraints and the expected role of the Railways, the strategy and the broad objectives for the Eighth Plan are given below:-
i) Complete the process of rehabilitation, replacement and renewal of overaged as-sets;
ii) Adopt improved methods of maintenance to increase the productivity and reliability of services and assets;
iii) Augment line, terminal and rolling stock capacities and convert metre gauge to broad gauge on a selective basis;
iv) Take steps to improve the overall efficiency of the Railways through technological upgradation, reduction of operation costs and increasing productivity of labour and capital assets.
v) Conserve energy through technological upgradation, with greater stress on electrification;
vi) Expand the network on a selective basis to increase the line capacity on saturated routes through alternative routes, connecting the missing links in the network and lines required for strategic, industrial and other developmental needs;and
vii) Continue the "system approach" to reduce costs of operation and strive for an optimal balance between capital and human endeavour inputs.
ROADS
General 9.8.1 Along with other modes like railways, waterways and air services, roads provide the basic infrastructure for transportation of goods and passengers. Roads cater to all types of traffic; the long distance traffic is served by national highways and State highways, inter-district and intra district traffic by major district roads, feeder traffic connecting rural centres of production to market outlets by other district
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TABLE - 9.3 Expenditure on Roads & Bridges - Seventh Plan
(Rs. crores)
Seventh Plan 1990-91 1991-92
Outlay Expenditure Outlay Expenditure Outlay
I.Central Sector 1019.75 1640.91 460.00 410.23 490.00
of which
National Highways 891.75 1481.68 413.50 390.07 446.00
II. . State Sector 4180.29 4693.88 1363.41 1303.05 1575.68
roads and local traffic by village roads and urban roads.
Investment on Roads 9.8.2 Total investment on roads and road bridges in Central and State Sectors since the beginning of planning, is given at Annexure 9.1. The share of investment on roads has been declining over the Plan periods.
9.8.3 Expenditure incurred in the central and state sectors during the Seventh Plan, 1990-91 and 1991-92 is given in Table - 9.3 .
9.8.4 Substantial expenditure has been incurred on the construction of roads under certain other heads of development like special employment programmes and North East Council during Seventh Plan. Such expenditure was estimated to be of the order of Rs. 2175 crores during the Seventh Plan.
Review of Past Growth 9.9.1 There has been a steady growth in the road network in the last four decades, as shown in Table 9.4.
9.9.2 It will be seen from the above that the total length of national highways has increased only by about 70% between 1950-51 and 1989-90 while the increase in the case of all other roads is of the order of 544%
9.9.3 In 1950-51, only 39% of total road length was surfaced. This rose to 43.3% in 1970-71, and 46.7% in 1984-85. The latest available information does not indicate any significant increase in the proportion of surfaced roads
Table - 9.4 Length of Roads
(Thousand Kms.)
1950-51 1960-61 1970-71 1980-81 1987-88 1989-90
1. National
Highways 19.81 23.80 29.13 31.67 32.33 33.69
2. State
Highways 42.56 61.69 89.22 94.36 112.50
3. Other Roads
(including 337.57 438.99 799.53 1365.27 1698.59 2069.5p
district roads & village roads
etc.)
Total 399.94 524.48 917.88 1491.30 1843.42 2103.23P
Source: 1. 7th Plan Document.
2. Directorate of Transport Research, Min. of
Surface Transport.
P : Provisionally Estimated
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leaving over 50% of the road length in the country unsurfaced.
Road Connection to Villages 9.9.4 Accessibility of villages by allweather roads improved significantly duing the Seventh Plan. It has been estimated that by the end of the Seventh Plan, the total number of villages with a population of 1000 and above were about 102900 villages. During 1990- 91 the corresponding achevement was 2000 villages and during 1991-92 villages are targetted to be connected.
Major Constraints 9.9.5 The national highways (NH) which constitute the primary network of the road system in the country has recorded a moderate expansion since 1951. The total length of the NH system at present is estimated years, the NH system has come under severe strain due to high rate of growth in traffic volume. Selection and prioritisation of different segments of road network for improvement and upgradation are handicapped by the absence of reliable data. There are as yet no arrangements for systematic collection of data on road traffic in the absence of traffic recording and reporting procedures, multiplicity of transport agencies and preponderance of single vehicle operators. Attempts had been made in the past by different groups and committees to build up estimates of road traffic for goods and passengers by different methods and under different assumptions. These traffic estimates and projections show considerable variations. It is necessary to undertake periodic traffic surveys to update information at regular intervals.
9.9.6 Road traffic is likely to increase substantially in the next 10 years. The order of increase may be anywhere between 100% and 200%. The road system has to be strengthened and expanded to meet this these roads are inadequate road pavement, breadth and thickness and presence of old, weak and narrow bridges and culverts.
9.9.7 In The case of rural roads, the main problem is that at present several organisations handle road construction and maintenance resulting in duplication of effort, lack of uniformity and imbalanced development of the network. There is, therefore, need to unify the organisational structure for rural road planning, construction and maintenance so as to derive the maximum benefits from the outlays.
9.9.8 Maintenance of roads has not received adequate attention in the past primarily because of lack of funds. It was estimated that availability of funds for maintenance generally does not exceed 60% of normal requirements and in case of rural roads it is still less.
Thrust Areas and Strategy for the Eighth Plan 9.10.1 The existing deficiencies in national highways (NH) would require construction of missiing links, four-laning and two laning of various sections, construction of bridges and by-passes etc. The first priority will be given to complete the ongoing works. For systematic development of the NH system, different strategies will need to adopted for low, medium and high volume traffic density routes. Capacity augmentation of high density traffic corridors carrying more than 15,000 passenger car units traffic per day, thorugh four- laning will need to be taken up during the Eighth Plan. For selected high density corridors, it may be necessary to consider expressway facility for rapid and safe movement of fast traffic. Levy of tolls may be considered for highway users. For national highways carrying medium traffic density, traffic upto 15000 PCUs, widening to two-lanes may be considered only on a selective basis, depending upon the resource availablility. However, week and narrow bridges have to b replaced.
9.10.2 The regards additions to the National Highways system, it would be necessary to adopt a very selective approach in view of the resource constraints and the need to give priority to removal of deficiencies on the existing NH system.
9.10.3 Constraints of resources may not permit removal of all the existing deficiencies in the State highways during the Plan period and a selective approach based on economic cost benefit analysis may have to be adopted. Consolidat-
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ing the existing network should receive high priority. It would be necessary to widen and strengthen the pavement structure to minimise vehicle operating costs and maintenance expenditure. A number of bridges would be required to be constructed/reconstructed. Special attention has to be given to those State Highways which would require to be upgraded to national Highway in the future on the basis of traffic densties and growth. It is essential that the State Governments make arrangements to prepare suitable road and bridge inventories covering the existing physical status and structural condition of the main network comprising the State highways and major district roads and then update them at regular periodic intervals. Regular traffic counts on these roads would be necessary in order to decide on the inter-se priority of development of various sections.
9.10.4 Rural roads are essential for achieving the objective of integrated rural development. The priority for rural road development in the Eighth Plan would be as under :-
a) Linking of all villages with a population of1000 and above on the basis of 1981 census.
b) Special efforts to accelerate village connectivity in respect of backward regions and tribal areas.
9.10.5 It would be appropriate to integrate rural road construction and maintenance under Minimum Needs Programme (MNP) with local area development planning. State Governments may pool the resources made available under MNP and special employment programmes and undertake rural road construction under the respective local area development plan.
Productivity and Technological Upgradation 9.10.6 Construction, upgradation and improvements of roads involve heavy expenditure. Engineering measures to ensure a minimum 15 year design life, to improve road safety and reduce fuel consumption should be identified for implementation. It is necessary to improve the design of vehicles for both passenger and freight. Plying of multi- axle vehicles and truck-trailer combinations need to be encouraged to reduce their damaging effects on pavements and also to reduce the vehicle operating costs. Procurement of modern road building equipment needs to be encouraged. In the construction of roads meant for high traffic density, the emphasis should be on modern techniques involving a fairly high degree of mechanisation and rigid quality con- trol. For rural roads, however, existing construction technology and labour intensive methods would suffice. Use of new concepts like geo- synthetics, reinforced earth construction, cable stayed bridges, segmental construction techniques, incremental launching methods in bridge construction etc. should be introduced which would not only lead to better productivity but also reduce cost of construction.
Maintenance 9.10.7 Maintenance of roads has not received adequate attention in the past primarily because of lack of funds. It would be necessary to provide sufficient funds for maintenance to avoid continuing deterioration of roads built with scarce Plan resources.
Augmentation of Resources 9.10.8 In view of the resource constraints, it would be desirable to look for non-Governmental sources of funds and private participation in road construction. Augmentation of Central Road Fund should help, to some extent, increase the resources available for road development. Another possible source for additional resources for the road sector could be toll-based highway projects. Private participation through Build, Operate and Transfer(BOT) projects, should be encouraged.
Research & Development 9.10.9 Research and development activities have an important role to play in meeting the challenges of modernising the road system, technology upgradation and finding cost-effective solutions to infrastructural problems in general. The emphasis during the Eighth Plan would be to reorient road research activities to achieve the objective of improvement and upgradation of the road network at the least possible cost. Problems relating to improvements, upgradation, construction and maintenance of various types of roads and road transport should be prioritised and projects to be implemented in a time-bound frame should be sanctioned accordingly. The focus of research should be not merely on technological aspects but also planning and manage-
233
ment. There is need to set up a road and traffic Data Bank at national and State levels which will greatly facilitate in the preparation of programmes and their execution. It may be necessary to strengthen and coordinate the research and development activities undertaken by the Central Road Research Institute, the road labo- ratories in different States and other organisations.
Eighth Plan Outlay 9.11.1 The need for higher outlays in the road sector is recognised. However, due to constraint of resources, an outlay of Rs.2,600 crores has been indicated for Central Sector Roads. The requirements would be reviewed during Annual Plan discussions and adjustments made at that stage.
9.11.2 In the State Sector, an outlay of Rs.10610 crores is provided for roads and bridges including Rs. 3066.10 crores for rural roads under the minimum needs programme.
ROAD TRANSPORT
General 9.12.1 Road transport is of great importance both for movement of passengers and goods. It is ideally suited for short and medium distances because of its inherent advantages such as easy availability and flexibility of operation, adaptability to individual needs, door to door service and reliability. It is also the main mechanised means of transport in hilly and rural areas not served by Railways. Road transport provides one of the basic infrastructure facilities for eco- nomic development of backward areas besides being the feeder service to rail traffic, ports and harbours.
9.12.2 During the last four decades, road transport has rapidly gained importance in the overall transport system of the country. The total number of all types of mechanised motor vechicles increased from a mere 3 lakhs in 1950-51 to 192 lakhs in 1989-90. Categorywise No. of registered vehicles is given in table 9.5.
Expenditure/Outlay in Road Transport Sector 9.12.3 Table 9.6 gives the outlay and expenditure during Seventh Plan, outlay and anticipated expenditure during 1990-91 and outlay for 1991-92.
Goods Transport 9.12.4 Road freight services are almost wholly owned and operated by the private sector. Steps have been taken in recent years to remove certain impediments to the growth of road transport industry. A major step has been to liberalise the issue of National and Zonal Permits. In January 1986, the Central Government removed the ceil-
Table 9.5 Registered Motor Vehicles
(In '000 Nos.)
1951 1961 1971 1981 1990P
March March March March March
1.Goods vehicles 82 168 343 590 1289
2. Buses 34 57 94 154 312
3. Cars, jeeps and
taxis 159 310 682 1122 2733
4.Two wheelers 27 88 576 2530 12525
5. Other Vehicles 4 42 170 847 2314
(Tractors,trailers,
three wheelers and
other misc.
vehicles)
Total 306 665 1865 5243 19173
k3
Source : Ministry of Surface Transport - Transport Research Division.
P : Provisionally Estimated.