Managing Maintenance of Rural Roads in India

New Delhi, October 2014 - 194 p.This document has been prepared as part of the technical assistance provided by the International Labour Organization to the Prime Minister’s Rural Road Programme (PMGSY). This technical collaboration with the National Rural Roads Development Agency is funded through the financing provided by the World Bank to the Rural Roads Project.
Road construction work is well documented in India through an extensive library of technical guidelines, manuals and specifications. As such, the quality standards of road works are well detailed and resulting in high quality outputs reflecting the functional objectives of such guidelines. Road maintenance forms part of the works carried out to provide adequate transport infrastructure. From a technical point of view, there is no shortage of technical guidance on how the works should be carried out. The challenge seems to be more related to how maintenance should be organised and when it should be carried out.
The technical aspects of road maintenance are addressed in several good publications guiding the provision of a functional rural road network in India. A number of these documents are referred to in this Guide. The intention of this document is however not in any way to replace any of the literature currently available on this topic but rather to complement it by presenting a series of good practices and management arrangements that have proven effective in terms of providing timely maintenance to rural roads.
Observations regarding rural road maintenance practices in this document are based on findings from an extensive situation analysis carried out by the ILO in the states participating in the Rural Roads Project as well as earlier studies carried out in India and elsewhere. As such, it includes lessons learnt and best practices from within the country and elsewhere.
Maintenance practices vary in different parts of the country. Equally, the environment and traffic patterns show a high level of diversity depending on the location. Finally, it is recognised that the organization of the road sector and its technical and managerial resources vary from one state to the other. It is therefore important to acknowledge that there is no standard solution to be applied in terms of reaching optimal arrangements. Still, there are key issues which apply everywhere and which need proper attention in order to secure adequate and timely maintenance of the rural road network.
It should also be acknowledged that some states have managed to establish a fairly well functioning maintenance system for its rural road network, while others are still in early development stages. In some places, the systems are well established, however, due to resource constraints their coverage is incomplete. For this reason, only parts of this Guide may be of relevance to some readers, as some of the issues are already addressed in some of the states.
As such, it is important to point out that the Guide has been prepared with the knowledge that elaborate road maintenance management systems have already been introduced in several states. This document makes no intention to replace those systems but rather attempts to place further attention to the importance of such management arrangements.
This Guide has been prepared with inputs from the technical assistance team of the ILO in close consultation with technical staff from the various road agencies in the participating states of the Rural Roads Project.1 Rationale for rural road maintenance
1.1 Purpose of maintenance
1.2 Types of maintenance
1.3 Benefits of maintenance
1.4 Deteriorating rural access
1.5 Attitude and perception
2 Current Setting
2.1 The rural road network
2.2 The maintenance challenge
3 Financing rural road maintenance
3.1 The challenge
3.2 Funding confidence
3.3 Funding sources
3.4 Preparing a financing plan3.5 Managing road maintenance funds
3.6 Funding priorities
3.7 A preventive approach
3.8 Asset management
3.9 Economic analysis
3.10 Routine maintenance priority
3.11 Cost of maintenance works
4 Technical considerations
4.1 General
4.2 Functional requirements or rural roads
4.3 Design standards
4.4 Drainage
4.5 Pavements
4.6 Timing of works
4.7 Classifying the condition of the road
4.8 Technology choice
5 Institutional arrangements
5.1 Organization5.2 Maintenance arrangements
5.3 Capacity of technical agency
5.4 Structure
5.5 Training
6 Planning and implementation6.1 General framework
6.2 Planning maintenance
6.3 Road inventories
6.4 Maps and graphical presentations
6.5 Road condition surveys
6.6 Assessment of maintenance requirements
6.7 Prioritising and scheduling maintenance works
6.8 Service levels
6.9 Estimating and budgeting
6.10 Work preparations
6.11 Work programme
6.12 Safety at the work site
6.13 Reporting
7 Contracts management
7.1 General
7.2 Private sector involvement
7.3 Packaging of works
7.4 Common forms of contracts
7.5 Preparing contracts
7.6 Contracts management
7.7 Work supervision7.8 Defects liability period
7.9 Performance contracting
Appendix 1 Reference literature