action plan for roads overview - united...

Roads; Overview

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Action Plan for Roads

Overview Introduction The Action Plan for Roads comprises

• 5 Consultation, Policy and Information Papers (see Background Document) • A long term investment plan and maintenance budget for national, provincial and rural

roads.

The Consultation, Policy and Information Papers are attached to this Overview. The investment plan and maintenance budget is an annex to the Overview document (Operational Budgets and Financing; Road Infrastructure, June 2003). Summary of Policy, Consultation and Information Papers

The five Consultation, Policy and Information Papers elaborate on, and make practical proposals for the implementation of the policy recommendations made in the roads section of the Background Document to the Policy Statement for the Transport Sector. Consultation Paper 2.1: The Organisational Structure of the Ministry of Public Works This Paper provides suggestions for how the MPW should be organised during the coming five to seven years, based on a number of aspects of importance to the future management of the road sector. Firstly, the MPW has lost nearly all its resources for road construction and maintenance during the more than two decades long conflict. The MPW used to carry out all construction and maintenance work utilising force account. The Ministry should not try to restore the construction and maintenance capacity that it once possessed; see further Consultation Paper 2.2. The way forward should instead be to engage the private sector in road construction and maintenance work. The Ministry should, however, retain a capability to carry out emergency repair and routine maintenance. The Ministry hence needs to reorganise its maintenance units. The Ministry also needs to transfer its construction units to, initially, one or more commercial state-owned enterprises as well as allow private operators to absorb its staff. Secondly, the MPW should in the short-term retain a centralised organisation structure. A decentralised structure would be more flexible and would be able to react faster and better to local demands. The decentralised organisation structure would, however, demand considerably more trained staff than is available at this stage. Thirdly, the airport design and construction functions together with relevant staff should be transferred to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism (MCAT). And finally, rural roads now under the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development should be transferred to the MPW. This is recommended in order not to stretch the very limited available human and equipment resources too thinly.

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Consultation Paper 2.2: MPW Construction and Maintenance Operations As mentioned above, the main part of the present road and airport construction staff of about 1,600 that the MPW still employs should, to the extent possible, be transferred to private sector contractors. This can partly be realised in connection with the numerous donor sponsored road rehabilitation projects that will be carried out in the immediate future. Consideration should also be given to the establishment of state-owned companies based on the present construction units. Part of the Ministry’s present maintenance staff should be given training in labour-based road maintenance in order for them to be able to act as trainers for private sector labour-based maintenance units - which may be small-scale contractors and community groups. The rest of the maintenance staff should be formed into units to perform emergency repair and routine maintenance works. The local contracting industry is very weak at present with virtually only one contractor being able to carry out bigger projects. A stronger local contracting industry has to be created. A clause on compulsory use and training of local subcontractors should be included in rehabilitation contracts in order to develop and train the local contracting industry. The contract with the local subcontractors must include an obligation to employ MPW construction personnel as part of their permanent staff. Consultation Paper 2.3: Reform, Restructuring and Strengthening of the Ministry of Public Works This Consultation Paper sets out a strategy for reform, restructuring and strengthening of MPW. It builds on the recommendations made in Consultation Papers 2.1 and 2.2. It also takes into account the fact that MPW has decided to seek Priority Reform and Restructuring (PRR) status for one of its departments, in terms of the Decree on Priority Reform and Restructuring within Ministries and Government Agencies. The strategy also takes into account that the MPW already benefits from substantial long term TA, primarily for project management support and to assist with project identification and development. The strategy proposed here for how to move forward consists of three components:

• A proposal for how the MPW should be organised during the process of its reform and restructuring.

• An approach for how to drive the reform and restructuring process • The provision of capacity to manage the reform and restructuring process.

Policy Paper 2.4: Financing of the Road Sector This Paper recommends that a system for the imposition tolls on vehicles using national roads, which have been upgraded and/or rehabilitated, should be introduced in the near future. The toll revenues should be used to finance contracts for routine maintenance (including operations) of these roads, following completion of the upgrading and/or rehabilitation works, and the tolls should be set to provide for full financing of these contracts. The system should

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allow for a specific contract to be financed exclusively by the tolls collected on the road concerned, as well as cross-subsidisation between different roads, which have been upgraded or rehabilitated. It is further suggested that a complete design of the recommended new system, including draft legislation, should be prepared. Additionally a plan for its implementation should be prepared. Information Paper 2.5: The Long Term Institutional Arrangements in the Road Sector The purpose of this Paper 2.5 is to provide a vision of the long term structure for the management of road infrastructure, in particular as concerns the institutional and funding arrangements. In line with national policy, the long term institutional and financing framework for road management is envisaged to have the following key features:

• One and the same Ministry is made responsible for all national roads. • That Ministry will only be concerned with policy, planning and monitoring. The

management of roads and funds are delegated to autonomous agencies. • An autonomous Highway Agency will be responsible for the management of the road

network, according to the policy and plans laid down by the Ministry. • Another autonomous agency will be responsible for the management of a Road Fund,

to be responsible for the collection of revenues from road user charges and the financing of the operations and maintenance of the network.

• Commercial consultants and contractors will be responsible for the implementation of the required services and works through competitive contracting.

Operational and Investment budgets Estimates have been made of the annual funding required to rehabilitate and maintain the road network. Due to the long period of neglect and the resultant deteriorated condition of the road network, it will take several years to fully rehabilitate the roads of Afghanistan. Only after the roads that are in a poor condition have been rehabilitated to a “fair” or “good” condition can they be maintained in that state by a well planned and optimised maintenance programme.

The budget for a programme to rehabilitate and maintain the road network over the next five years is shown in Table 1 below.

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Table 1: Summary of Road Budget

Road Classification & Type of Road Works

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

National Maintenance 23.8 30.9 33.1 34.8 34.8 National Rehabilitation 184.0 453.7 342.3 156.0 142.0 Subtotal – National Roads 207.8 484.5 375.4 190.8 176.8 Provincial Maintenance 10.2 12.7 15.3 20.4 25.5 Provincial Rehabilitation 74.6 74.6 149.3 149.3 298.5 Subtotal – Provincial 84.8 87.4 164.5 169.6 324.0 Rural Feeder Roads Maintenance 4.4 6.6 8.8 11.1 13.3

Rural Feeder Roads Rehabilitation 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0

Subtotal - Rural Feeder Roads 21.4 23.6 25.8 28.1 30.3 Urban Roads Maintenance 1.7 2.6 3.5 4.4 5.2 Urban Roads Rehabilitation 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 Subtotal - Urban Roads 7.7 8.6 9.5 10.4 11.2 Total - All Roads 321.8 604.2 575.2 398.9 542.3

By combining available data on anticipated donor and government funding with the total road budget required, the likely budget shortfall over the next five years can be estimated as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Overall Road Budget Financing (USD millions)

Donor Government Shortfall Total – All Roads

2003-04 184.0 24.0 113.8 321.8 2004-05 453.7 66.0 84.5 604.2 2005-06 342.3 63.1 169.8 575.2 2006-07 156.0 69.4 173.4 398.9 2007-08 142.0 76.4 323.9 542.3

Consultation Paper 2.1

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The Organisational Structure of the Ministry of Public Works Executive Summary This Paper provides suggestions for how the MPW should be organised during the coming five to seven years. Proposals for a longer term development of the roads sector in Afghanistan are contained in Information Paper 2.5. There are a number of aspects to be considered when proposing an organisational structure during the coming years for MPW. Firstly, the MPW has lost nearly all its resources for road construction and maintenance during the more than two decades long conflict. The MPW used to carry out all construction and maintenance work utilising force account. The Ministry should not try to restore the construction and maintenance capacity that it once possessed; see further consultation Paper 2.2. The way forward should instead be to engage the private sector in road construction and maintenance work. The Ministry could, however, retain a capability to carry out emergency repair and maintenance and routine maintenance. The Ministry hence needs to reorganise its maintenance units. The Ministry also needs to transfer out its construction units to initially one or more commercial state-owned enterprises. Secondly, the MPW should in the short-term retain a centralised organisation structure. A decentralised structure would be more flexible and would be able to react faster and better to local demands. The decentralised organisation structure would, however, demand considerably more trained staff than is available at this stage. Thirdly, the airport design and construction functions together with relevant staff should be transferred to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism (MCAT). This would be a first step of the reorganisation of the operations of airports as further discussed in Consultation Paper 3.4. Finally, rural roads now under the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development should be transferred to the MPW. This is recommended in order not to stretch the very limited available human and equipment resources too thinly. Recommendations: The restructuring measures identified above should be implemented. Actions: The recommended reforms and restructuring activities need to be reflected in the work to be undertaken by the Capacity Building Unit proposed in Consultation Paper 2.3.


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Introduction The total current staffing of the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) amounts to 2,200 persons and its mandate covers the following activities:

• Road infrastructure planning • Road construction and maintenance • Road tolls collection • Survey and design • Vehicle maintenance (of own vehicles and equipment) • Airport design and construction (maintenance is for MCAT) • Inland waterway terminals • Railways

The road network under the MPW comprises 3,398 km of primary roads, 2,773 km of secondary roads and about 15,000 km of provincial roads. A list of the roads is appended as Annex 1. For the provincial roads only 5,364 km are listed as a comprehensive list is not available. The above road classification is mainly based on the technical standard of the roads. A functional road classification would better show the importance of the roads and is also needed for determining the road maintenance standard to be followed. The present organisation structure of MPW is shown in Fig 1 below. Reform of Scope of Activities and Functions As part of the rebuilding of the capacity of MPW, it is proposed that it also modifies its focus so that it slowly moves towards the position as being the road manager for the public network of the country. To this end a number of changes in the present activities and scope of activities are proposed to be implemented during the coming few years Firstly, the MPW has lost nearly all its resources for road construction and maintenance during the more than two decades long conflict. The MPW used to carry out all construction and maintenance work utilising force account. The Ministry should not try to restore the construction and maintenance capacity that it once possessed. The way forward should instead be to engage the private sector in road construction and maintenance work. The Ministry could, however, retain a – and also build up its -- capability to carry out emergency repair and maintenance and routine maintenance. Most of the present road construction staff of about 1,600 that the MPW still employs should be transferred to private sector contractors. One way that this could be realised is through inclusion into the contracts of an obligation to employ MPW construction personnel as part of the permanent staff of the local sub-contractors in connection with the numerous donor sponsored road rehabilitation projects that will be carried out in the immediate future; see further Consultation Paper 2.2. Another possibility is to form one or several state-owned construction enterprises, which may later be privatised at an opportune time. The exact approach in this regard will need to be studied further; see further Consultation Papers 2.3 and 2.4.


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Fig.1 Current Structure of the Ministry of Public W

orks

Total MPW

Staff: 2162

Inspection M

r. Sayed Ahmad R

oodwal

22 employees

Projects &

Engineering

Mr. M

. Qasem

Saleck 90 em

ployees

Road C

onstruction LTG

Moham

mad Q

asim212 em

ployees

Maintenance

Mr. Azizullah Zahad

210 employees

Public R

elations M

r. Sayed Abas (acting)45 em

ployees

Railw

ays (This D

ept is being planned)

Planning

Mr. Saleem

Baydia (Acting)62 em

ployees

Adm

inistration M

r. Abdul Saieed Rahm

ani202 em

ployees

Dr. A

bdullah Ali

Minister

Dr. M

.Yaquob Shagassi

Deputy M

inister

DEPAR

TMEN

TS

F: \AAO shared\M

PW\O

rganizational Chart 4

S H

Rotate


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Part of the present maintenance staff should be given training in labour-based road maintenance in order for them to be able to act as trainers for private sector labour-based maintenance units - which may be small-scale contractors or community groups. The rest of the maintenance staff should be formed into emergency/routine maintenance units. Secondly, the airport design and construction functions together with relevant staff should be transferred to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism (MCAT). As discussed in Consultation Paper 3.4, it is proposed that the ownership and operations of airports of the country be transferred to a state-owned corporation. The first step to implement that reform would be ensure that all aspects of airports operations are vested in a department within the MCAT. For the time being, MPW should remain responsible for railways and inland waterway terminals. It is, however, suggested that MPW officials concerned with these matters are moved into either a separate office reporting to the minister, or in terms of Fig 2 below be transferred to the projects division. Thirdly, rural roads now under the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development should be transferred to the MPW. This is recommended in order not to stretch the very limited available human and equipment resources too thinly. It is envisaged that responsibility for provincial and rural roads later on will be transferred to the provincial level, so the proposed step should in effect be seen as a first step in a process eventually resulting in a realisation of the government’s decentralisation policy. Reform of the Organisation The above changes prompts reforming the present organisation of MPW as well. There is also a need to consolidate the reporting structure. A possible new organisation structure is shown in Fig 2 below. It reflects a centralised approach to road management. The MPW should thus in the short-term retain a centralised organisation structure. A decentralised structure would be more flexible and would be able to react faster and better to local demands. The decentralised organisation structure would, however, require considerably more qualified personnel, which is not available at this stage. The MPW should when resources so allow strive to a decentralised organisation structure; a possible solution is illustrated in Annex 2, but there are also ‘in-between’ solutions, which may be more suitable as a step towards subsequent genuine decentralisation.


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Ministry of Public Works

Project Implementation (Donor funded projects)

Survey &Design

Planning &Monitoring

Provincialoffices

RoadRehabilitation &

Construction

Provincialoffices

RoadMaintenance

Road Mangement

Deputy MinisterTechnical

Administration &Accounting

Policy, Strategic Planning& Monitoring

Capacity Building

Deputy MinisterAdministration

Minister

Fig 2: Proposed organisation structure of the Ministry of Public Works for centralised road management The responsibilities of the Project Implementation Department would include co-ordination and implementation of Donor funded road rehabilitation and construction projects. The Capacity Building Department would be responsible for priority reform and restructuring. The Road Management Department would be responsible for primary, secondary, provincial and rural road networks. The Provincial Offices (altogether about 7, and each one covering a number of provinces would supervise contract construction, rehabilitation and maintenance works and also have their own labour-based emergency/routine maintenance units. The responsibilities of the MPW would include:

• Road infrastructure policy formulation • Road infrastructure strategy formulation • Road network management • Road maintenance, rehabilitation and construction planning and budgeting • Formulation of maintenance and construction standards • Road network inventory, condition survey, traffic counts and axle load surveys • Supervision and monitoring of donor funded rehabilitation and construction projects • Management of contract maintenance, rehabilitation and construction • Emergency maintenance and labour-based routine maintenance by force account


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Considerable strengthening of the MPW will be needed in order for the Ministry to be able to take the responsibility for the management of the networks of the 38,000 km of primary, secondary, provincial and rural roads. This means strengthening of both the staff and financial resources; see further Consultation Paper 2.3. The Ministry must utilise its existing offices in some of the provincial capitals for planning, organising, supervising and monitoring the maintenance operations. Recommendations The restructuring measures identified above should be implemented. Actions The recommended reforms and restructuring activities need to be reflected in the work to be undertaken by the Capacity Building Unit proposed in Consultation Paper 2.3.


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ANNEX 1: ROAD LENGTHS IN DIFFERENT ROAD CATEGORIES

1. Primary Roads

No Road Length (km)

1 Kabul - Mazar-i-Sharif 427

2 Mazar-i-Sharif - Sheberghan 150

3 Sheberghan – Andhuy - Maymana 209

4 Maymana – Heart 410

5 Kabul – Ghazni 149

6 Ghazni – Qalat 219

7 Qalat – Kandahar 137

8 Kandahar – Heart 588

9 Polekhomri – Kunduz – Shirkhan Bondar 169

10 Hairatan – Durahi Mazar 48

11 Kabul – Jalalabad - Turkham 224

12 Heart – Turgondi 119

13 Heart – Eslamkala 224

14 Kandahar – Spin Boldak 105

15 Kabul – Gardez - Khost 220

TOTAL (km) 3,398

2. Secondary Roads

No Road Length (km)

1 Herat – Chagchran 351

2 Delaram - Porchaman - Masjednegar 315

3 Bamian - Chagchran 344

4 Bamian - Charikar 120

5 Bamian – Doshy 160

6 Bamian - Mazar-i-Sharif 380

7 Kandahar - Trinkot - Shaikh 451

8 Kunduz – Tolukan - Eshkashem 317

9 Jalalabad – Asadabad - Kamdesh 220

10 Gardis - Sharam - Orgon 115

TOTAL (km) 2,773


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3. Provincial Roads

No Road Length (km)

1 Delaram - Chehansur 202

2 Chekhansur - Zaranj 62

3 Delaram – Farah 133

4 Farah - Chekhansur 149

5 Farah – Lashjavin -Chekhansur 167

6 Lashjavin - Zaranj 89

7 Farah - Shindand 149

8 Shindand - Klainazarkhan 131

9 Shindand - Shahrak 299

10 Enjil - Gorian 64

11 Gareshk - Lashkargah 33

12 Lashkargah - Garamsir 60

13 Garamsir - Desho 125

14 Desho - Charburjak 147

15 Charburjak - Zaranj 108

16 Gareshk - Musakala 56

17 Garshk - Naozad 100

18 Musakala - Bandekajaki 94

19 Argandab - Khakrez 65

20 Khakrez - Nish 68

21 Trinkot - Dehrawod 60

22 Dehrawod - Kajran 72

23 Trinkot - Orozgan 92

24 Orozgan - Malistan 84

25 Malistan - Nawar 155

26 Nawar - Gozni 99

27 Gozni - Sharan 56

28 Sharan - Zargonshar 48


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No Road Length (km)

29 Zargonshar - Wazakhowa 107

30 Wazakhowa - Voormamy 36

31 Kalat - Shinkai 70

32 Shinkai - Shamalzai 35

33 Gozni – Pul-i-Alam 80

34 Shekhabad – Chak - Behsood 110

35 Gardiz - Gozni 86

36 Gardiz - Jajee 69

37 Pul-i-Alam - Jajee 63

38 Garghaiy – Laghman - Nuoristan 67

39 Asadbad - Pech 45

40 Saroby - Mahmudragi 88

41 Jabalsaraj – Panjsher - Zeebok 335

42 Khenjan – Andarab – Nahrin - Baghlan 260

43 Talugan - Worsaj 91

44 Faizabad - Ragh 52

45 Emamsaeb - Dashteearchy 62

46 Dashteearchy – Khojaghar – Yangakala - Rostag 162

47 Kunduz – Abdanemiralam - Kholm 113

48 Ageha - Khamyab 85

49 Shebergan - Dowlatabad 100

50 Sherbergan - Sarepul 55

51 Sarepul – Sangeharak - Bulkhab 146

52 Sarepul - Bolcheragh 80

TOTAL (km) 5,364


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ANNEX 2: Decentralised road management Taking into account the large area of the country there is merit in decentralising the management of the road network. This would enable a more flexible and better response to local road maintenance needs. A province-based decentralisation would, however, not be feasible because of the large number of provinces. A more feasible approach would be decentralisation on a regional basis, the country being divided into the following seven regions:

1) Southern Region • Nimroz • Hilmand • Khandahar • Uruzgan 2) Western Region • Badghis • Ghor • Hirat • Farah 3) Northern Region • Faryab • Jamzjan • Balkh • Kunduz • Baghlan • Saripul • Samangan 4) Eastern Region • Nuristan • Kunar • Laghman • Nanguhar • Paktia • Khost • Paktika 5) Central Region • Bamyan • Parman • Ghazni 6) North Central Region • Badakhshan • Takhar 7) East Central Region • Kapisa • Kabul • Logar • Wardak


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In a decentralised organisation structure the responsibilities of the Central Administration would be:

• Road infrastructure policy formulation • Road infrastructure strategy formulation • Formulation of maintenance and construction standards • Supervision and monitoring of the performance of the regions • Road maintenance, rehabilitation and construction budgeting • Supervision and monitoring of donor funded rehabilitation and construction projects

Responsibilities of the Regions would include:

• Regional road network management • Road network inventory, condition survey and traffic counts • Detailed planning and budgeting of road maintenance operations • Management of road maintenance, rehabilitation and construction • Management of contract maintenance and construction • Emergency maintenance and labour-based routine maintenance by force account • Assistance in the management and maintenance of lower class roads not directly

under the MPW The organisation structure for decentralised road management is shown in Fig 1 below:


Project Implementation(Donor funded projects)

Survey &Design

Planning &Monitoring

Road rehabilitation& construction

Roadmaintenance

7 Regions

Road Mangement

Deputy MinisterTechnical

Administration &Accounting

Policy, Strategic Planning &Monitoring

Capcity Building

Deputy MinisterAdministration

Minister

Fig 1: Possible organisation structure of the Ministry of Public Works fordecentralised road management


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MPW Construction and Maintenance Operations Executive Summary The Ministry of Public Works (MPW) previously operated essentially as a large-scale engineering, construction and maintenance organisation. Today, spokesmen acknowledge an inability of the MPW to take on even a single big project because of a lack of qualified personnel and equipment, and as a consequence donors, and other organisations, in particular Afghan Assistance Coordination Authority (AACA), are in effect taking over the planning, preparation, procurement and contract management work for projects currently in hand. The main part of the present road and airport construction staff of about 1,600 that the MPW still employs should, to the extent possible, be transferred to private sector contractors. This can partly be realised in connection with the numerous donor sponsored road rehabilitation projects that will be carried out in the immediate future. Consideration should also be given to the establishment of state-owned companies based on the present construction units. Part of the Ministry’s present maintenance staff should be given training in labour-based road maintenance in order for them to be able to act as trainers for private sector labour-based maintenance units - which may be small-scale contractors and community groups. The rest of the maintenance staff should be formed into units to perform emergency and routine maintenance works. The local contracting industry is very weak with virtually only one contractor being able to carry out bigger projects. A stronger local contracting industry has to be created. A clause on compulsory use and training of local subcontractors has to be included in rehabilitation contracts in order to develop and train the local contracting industry. The contract with the local subcontractors must include an obligation to employ MPW construction personnel as part of their permanent staff. Recommendations: The MPW’s own account operations should focus on emergency and routine maintenance works. Surplus staff should be transferred to the private sector, new state-owned construction companies (to be privatised in due course), and/or labour-based units, as a precursor to the establishment of private labour-based units. Actions: A detailed strategy for how to restructure MPW needs to be worked out, including to implement the above recommendation. See further Consultation Paper 2.3.


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Introduction The Ministry of Public Works (MPW) was before responsible for virtually all government construction and maintenance. This included roads and bridges, airports, public housing, water, etc. All aspects of planning, design, construction and maintenance were carried out in-house through a number of MPW construction companies. Before 1992, one of the departments in MPW, Road Construction and Development, alone totalled over 5,000 employees. The MPW operated essentially as a large-scale engineering, construction and maintenance organisation. Anecdotally, the MPW claims a historic capacity to handle as many as eight major projects simultaneously. Over the years, the size and scope of the MPW have been reduced, in part through attrition as, lacking resources, there were no projects. More significantly, a portion of the MPW portfolio (e.g. housing, water, etc.) has been shifted to the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing. Today, spokesmen acknowledge an inability of the MPW to take on even a single big project because of a lack of qualified personnel and equipment and in consequence donors and other organisations in particular Afghan Assistance Coordination Authority (AACA), are in effect taking over the planning, preparation, procurement and contract management work for projects currently in hand. Although there has been some subsequent additions to the MPW’s construction and maintenance equipment, the overriding message remains clear. On a nation-wide basis the MPW’s resources are very limited, and a high portion of what is on hand is currently inoperable. Proposal It is proposed here that the Ministry should not try to restore the construction and maintenance capacity that it once possessed. The way forward should be to mainly engage the private sector in road construction and maintenance works. The reason for this is not only that it will be more cost-effective, but also that donors, who will be the main financiers of road works for years to come, will be promoting works done by way of contract, including in the field of routine maintenance. The present situation as concerns construction equipment in the MPW poses a further obstacle; see Annex 1. The Ministry should, however, retain a capability to carry out emergency repair works as well as routine maintenance. The reason for this is that it will not be possible to get the construction works contracting market to actually function in a satisfactory way for quite some time. This applies particularly to remote areas and to smaller works, so the MPW should be able to handle these kind of operations. Many of the present road construction staff of about 1,600 that the MPW still employs could be transferred to private sector contractors. This can be realised in connection with the


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numerous donor sponsored road rehabilitation projects that will be carried out in the immediate future. To further this process, consideration should also be given to the establishment of state-owned construction companies based on the present construction units. These companies would later be privatised, at an appropriate time. The local contracting industry is very weak with virtually only one contractor being able to carry out bigger projects. A stronger local contracting industry has to be created. Almost all primary and secondary roads are in need of rehabilitation before meaningful maintenance of them can be commenced. The rehabilitation will mainly be donor funded with foreign contractors carrying out the rehabilitation work. A clause on compulsory use and training of local subcontractors has to be included into the rehabilitation contracts in order to develop and train the local contracting industry. The contract with the local subcontractors must include an obligation to employ MPW construction personnel as part of their permanent staff. Strong co-ordination of donor funded road sector activities has to be introduced. The donor community involved in road sector funding in Afghanistan has to agree on procurement procedures that enable development and training of local subcontractors in connection with road rehabilitation and construction projects.

Fig 1: Development Process to be Applied in Order to Engage the Private Sector in Road Maintenance, Rehabilitation and Construction Works

All maintenance and construction carried out by MPW utilising force account

Donor funded rehabilitation of roads by foreign contractors

Training of small scale contractors and community groups in labour-based maintenance

Local contractors utilised as subcontractors and given training

Labour-based maintenance mainly carried out by private sector contractors and community groups

Local contracting industry is strengthened and will eventually be able to carry out major maintenance, rehabilitation and construction works


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Developing the Local Contracting Industry The practice to include local subcontractors in the rehabilitation contracts signed with foreign contractors should be commenced as soon as possible. This will need strong involvement and commitment of the donor community as well as the MPW. The foreign contractors must also take the responsibility to train the local subcontractors in good contracting and work performance practices. The contractor should include an appropriate training program in his tender. The training should include:

• Tendering • Work costing • Contract documentation • Accounting • Work planning and scheduling • Work supervision • Road works equipment and machinery • Quality assurance • Progress monitoring

The training will require the main contractor to include staff and equipment for the training component. This will be reflected in the contract price, but must still be considered as the fastest and probably cheapest way to develop the local contracting industry. The MPW should monitor the contractor's performance in carrying out the training component. The subcontractor’s subsequent performance after having received the training should also be monitored. Labour-based Maintenance As concerns maintenance staff, as substantial number would transfer to the new units for emergency and maintenance works. In addition, it is proposed that part of the Ministry’s present maintenance staff be given training in labour-based road maintenance in order for them to be able to: (a) act as trainers for private sector labour-based maintenance units - which may be small-

scale contractors and community groups (b) be formed into emergency/routine maintenance units

Small-scale contractors and community groups that will be involved in labour-based maintenance have to be assisted through training to enable them to carry out road maintenance work efficiently and satisfactorily. The training should include:

• Simple tendering • Simple contract documentation • Simple accounting • Work planning and scheduling


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• Shoulder maintenance • Slope maintenance • Drainage maintenance • Road surface reshaping • Patching • Regravelling • Bridge maintenance • Plant and tools

Selected suitable personnel from the MPW must be given trainer’s training in the above subjects in order to be able to carry out training of contractors and community groups. As the small-scale contractor and community groups, to be involved in the labour-based maintenance work may often not have the necessary plant and tools to carry out the work a Plant and Tools Pool should be established by the MPW. The Plant and Tools Pool would hire out the equipment to the contractors until they can afford to procure equipment of their own. The Ministry’s present maintenance staff has also to be given training in labour-based maintenance and be formed into emergency/routine maintenance units. The aim has to be to have the MPW maintenance staff trained and capable to independently carry out emergency maintenance operations and labour-based routine maintenance within six months from the commencement of the relevant training programme. The emergency/labour-based routine maintenance units have to be properly equipped to be able to carry out the tasks. Required equipment and personnel resources for each unit of 50 labourers will include:

Personnel

• 2 foremen • 1 driver • 1 mechanic for daily servicing and repair • 1 storeman • watchmen Equipment

• 1 tractor • 2 trailers • 1 towed deadweight roller or hand operated vibrating roller • 1 towed fuel bowser • light vehicles for transport of personnel • 40 shovels • 10 hoes • 25 mattocks • 25 pickaxes • 5 bushknives • 5 wheelbarrows • 10 rakes • 2 sledgehammers • 2 tape measures (30 m)


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• 5 buckets • 5 water containers • 1 camber board and spirit level • wooden pegs • string • 2 files (for sharpening tools)

Donor Assistance The MPW will need a considerable amount of donor assistance in order to be able to develop the capabilities for labour-based maintenance through the use of small-scale contractors as well as through the use of force account. Likewise the MPW will need assistance in developing the local contracting industry. Need for the following assistance is envisaged:

Assistance Explanation Estimated costs (USD)

Technical assistance in labour-based road maintenance

MPW personnel have to receive training to be able to form emergency/labour-based maintenance units. The MPW must also have the capacity to train small-scale contractors and community groups in labour-based maintenance operations.

1 expert for the duration of 24 months USD 480,000

Assistance in procurement of plant and tools for the MPW force account emergency/labour-based units

The MPW emergency/labour-based units must be properly equipped to be able to carry out their tasks

Cost of plant and tools for 5 unit of 50 labourers USD 500,000

Assistance in establishing a plant and tools pool for labour-based maintenance

The small-scale contractors and community groups that will be engaged in labour-based maintenance operations may not posses the plant and tools required. They would hire needed equipment from the MPW plant and tools pool.

A plant and tools pool for labour-based maintenance USD 500,000

Technical assistance in organising transfer of MPW staff to the private sector

The transfer of MPW staff to the private sector requires that the staff be given proper support and that some forms of incentives are introduced in order to encourage staff to accept a private sector employer or become self-employed.

1 expert for the duration of 18 months and cost of introduced incentives USD 860,000


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Assistance Explanation Estimated costs

(USD)

Technical assistance in planning and monitoring training of local sub-contractors by foreign contractors.

The training given local sub-contractors has to be carefully planned and also monitored.

1 expert for the duration of 24 months USD 480,000

TOTAL COSTS (USD) 2,820,000 Recommendations The MPW’s own account operations should focus on emergency repair and routine maintenance works. Surplus staff should be transferred to the private sector, new state-owned construction companies (to be privatised in due course), and/or labour-based units, as a precursor to the establishment of private labour-based units. Actions A detailed strategy for how to restructure MPW needs to be worked out, including to implement the above recommendation. See further Consultation Paper 2.3.


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ANNEX 1: Construction Equipment Availability at the Ministry of Public Works

Equipment Kabul

Kandahar Herat

Parwan Nangarhar Baghlan

Jaozjan TOTAL

Trucks 3 2 5 2 2 2 1 17 Operable 3 2 3 0 2 1 1 12

(71%) Dumpers 15 15 22 12 13 6 4 87 Operable 5 8 15 4 9 4 3 48

(55%) Water

Tankers 0 4 0 2 2 3 1 12

Operable 0 2 0 0 2 1 1 6 (50%) Bitumen Tank 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 3

Operable 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 (67%) Buses 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 4

Operable 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 3 (75%) Cars 4 1 4 2 0 0 0 11

Operable 4 1 4 1 0 0 0 10 (91%)

Bulldozers 3 0 6 6 2 4 2 23 Operable 2 0 4 3 0 2 1 12

(52%) Loaders 4 2 4 3 1 1 1 16 Operable 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 10

(63%) Graders 3 3 3 2 2 1 2 16

Operable 2 2 2 0 1 0 1 8 (50%) Excavators 2 0 0 3 1 1 1 8 Operable 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 4 (50%) Cranes 2 1 2 2 1 1 0 9

Operable 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 (33%) Rollers 5 0 4 2 2 1 1 15

Operable 2 0 3 1 1 1 0 8 (53%) Asphalt Mixer 4 0 1 0 6 0 0 11

Operable 2 0 1 0 2 0 0 5 (45%) Asphalt Plant 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 6

Operable 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 4 (67%) Air Compr. 1 2 2 2 0 0 1 8 Operable 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 4 (50%) Welders 2 0 2 1 0 2 0 7 Operable 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 3 (43%)

Generators 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Operable 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (0%)

Snowplows 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 Operable 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 (50%)

TOTAL 51 31 59 43 34 24 14 256 Operable 29 18 41 14 21 12 8 143 Percent 57% 58% 69% 33% 62% 50% 57% 56%

Source: Ministry of Public Works, November 2002


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Reform, Restructuring and Strengthening of the Ministry of Public Works

Executive Summary This Consultation Paper sets out a strategy for reform, restructuring and strengthening of MPW. It builds on the recommendations made in Consultation Papers 2.1 and 2.2. It also takes into account the fact that MPW decided to seek Priority Reform and Restructuring (PRR) status for one of its departments, in terms of the Decree on Priority Reform and Restructuring within Ministries and Government Agencies. A Stage one application, for PRR status to be awarded to the Department of Maintenance, was submitted to the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission on 3 September 2003. A Stage 2 application was expected to be submitted by the end of October 2003. The strategy also takes into account that the MPW already benefits from substantial long term TA, primarily for project management support and to assist with project identification and development. The strategy proposed here for how to move forward consists of three components:

• A proposal for how the MPW should be organised during the process and at the end of its reform and restructuring.

• An approach for how to drive the reform and restructuring process • The provision of capacity to manage the reform and restructuring process.

To be able to manage the reform and restructuring process, it is proposed that MPW decides on the implementation of a new organisational structure in the coming years. This would not be the final organisational arrangements in the road sector, but should be put in place to facilitate the later transformation of the sector in terms of the proposals made in the Policy Statement and elsewhere in the Action Plan. The approach proposed to be used to reform and restructure MCAT is based on the one outlined in Information Paper 4.1. It is repeated in this Paper and adapted to the needs of MPW. The engine of the approach is the PRR Decree explained further in Information Paper 4.1. The third component of the strategy is to recruit a consulting team to make up the core of the capacity building unit to be established to drive reform and restructuring. This team should partly comprise experts of Afghan decent. Recommendations: It is proposed that the MPW accepts the strategy for reforming, restructuring and strengthening of MPW as set out above.


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Actions: Following acceptance, in principle, of the Strategy the next steps would comprise the following:

1. Prepare complete TOR for the Team of Consultants to assist with the reform, restructuring and strengthening of the MPW.

2. Solicit funding for this Team of Consultants (about USD 2.3 million), and undertake recruitment.

3. Initiate the process for application of PRR-status to be awarded to a new department in the MPW to be called the Capacity Building Office (CBO). This Office would initially be expected to comprise a Capacity Building Unit, a Planning Unit and a Contracting Unit.


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1. Introduction This Consultation Paper sets out a strategy for reform, restructuring of MPW. It builds on the recommendations made in Consultation Papers 2.1 and 2.2. It also takes into account the fact that MPW decided to seek Priority Reform and Restructuring (PRR) status for one of its departments, in terms of the Decree on Priority Reform and Restructuring within Ministries and Government Agencies1. A Stage one application, for PRR status to be awarded to the Department of Maintenance, was submitted to the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission on 3 September 2003. A Stage 2 application was expected to be submitted by the end of October 2003. The strategy also takes into account that the MPW already benefits from substantial long term TA, primarily for project management support and to assist with project identification and development. This support is financed by the US Government The strategy proposed here for how to move forward consists of three components:

• A proposal for how the MPW should be organised during the process and at the end of its reform and restructuring.

• An approach for how to drive the reform and restructuring process • The provision of capacity to manage the reform and restructuring process, but also to

provide project management support for the implementation of capital and TA projects. 2. The MPW in about 5 Years’ Time – the Vision for the Future MPW

Following Reform and Restructuring The strategy is based on the following assumptions. Before the end of 2004, the following changes have been effected in the allocation of functions between ministries in TISA:

• Responsibilities with respect to rural roads will be transferred from the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development to the MPW.

• Responsibilities with respect to the construction of airport infrastructure will be transferred from MPW to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism (MCAT).

The first assumption reflects the recommendation of Paper 2.1, viz. that in order to be able to meet the goal of the TISA to devolve power to the provinces, the first step essentially entails centralization. There are two main reasons for this:

• To facilitate genuine decentralization at a later stage • The shortage of skilled manpower at present.

1 In terms of this decree, Ministries may develop proposals to reform and restructure departments which are carrying out critical functions within the Ministry, and may seek approval for these departments to be granted priority reform and restructuring (PRR) status. With the exception of ‘beyond’ grade posts, Ministries may propose that specified posts within Departments granted PRR status should be placed on an interim additional allowance (IAA) scale pending the introduction of comprehensive pay and grading reforms; and may nominate individuals to for appointment to such posts on a time-limited basis and subject to performance. Granting of PRR status and transfer of posts and staff to the interim additional allowance scale will be subject to the approval of the Inter-Ministerial Administrative Reform Group under the Administrative Reform & Civil Service Commission.


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The purpose of the strategy is to develop the MPW into a self-sustained manager of the public road network by the end of year 2008. At that time the following is expected:

• The MPW is capable of managing all primary, secondary, provincial and rural roads. • Day-to-day management of provincial and rural roads has been delegated to MPW’s

regional administrations (see below). • Maintenance operations have been delegated to the MPW’s regional administrations.

The main functions that MPW will be able to perform capably as a road manager, include the following:

• Planning of road network development, from long term planning to budgeting. • Planning of road network preservation, from medium term planning to budgeting. • Contracting for capital works, including preparation of contract documents, contract

administration and supervision. • Contracting for road network preservation, including preparation of contract

documents, contract administration and supervision. • The management and exploitation of its own force account units for undertaking

routine maintenance (including operations), and emergency repairs. • Monitoring of its own performance.

The future MPW will hence not be involved in construction works (Consultation Paper 2.2). It is assumed that that the present construction capability will be transferred to one or more state-owned contracting companies, which at a later stage may be privatized. It is also expected that as part of the reform and restructuring process, MPW staff will be encouraged to set up labour-based construction and maintenance units/companies. It is furthermore assumed that the future MPW will (normally) contract for:

• Undertaking pre-feasibility and feasibility studies. • Preparing contract documents, including, final designs, and undertaking supervision of

works. • Implementing capital works • Implementing periodic maintenance works (mainly overlays) • Implementing routine maintenance on primary roads (by way of long-term (5 year)

contracts), and to some extent on secondary roads. The expected organizational structure of MPW at the end of 2008 is depicted in Figure 1, which also sets out the main functions to be performed by the different units. It is furthermore expected that the regional organization will comprise (about) 8 offices, which would be serving the 32 provinces. The main features of the new organization are the following:

• Only 5 persons report to the Minister • The main division in the organization is between Planning (demand) and Contracting

(supply). Planning is responsible until a budget is approved, then Contract implements, including with assistance from Maintenance, whilst Planning monitors.


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• Maintenance is mainly a regional function involved in the implementation of works. Planning and overall supervision of its activities will be done by the Planning and Contracting Departments at HQ

• The Secretariat, in addition to normal staff functions, includes those functions which are not performed by a road manager (policy and legislation, railways).

• Planning is a centralized function. Contracting is, with the exception of large donor-financed projects, a decentralized functions, i.e. the work is done at the regional offices.

• The regional offices of MPW report to the departments of MPW HQ. The regional offices will thus not have a head reporting to the Minister in Kabul. As today, heads at the regional offices will report to heads of departments at the MPW HQ. As stated above, an organizational structure of this nature will facilitate further additional reforms at a later stage to allow for genuine decentralization to the provincial level (see below) in terms of the policies of TISA. The next step of the reform and restructuring process, after the end of year 2008 (i.e. beyond the present vision for MPW), is expected to comprise the following (see also Consultation Paper 2.5):

• The transfer of the responsibility for and ownership of provincial and rural roads out of MPW and to the provincial government level. The regional offices of MPW will provide management services to the provinces in an interim period until the provinces are capable of planning and managing their roads.

• The transfer of MPW’s functions in policy making, regulation, the final preparation of the road budget, and overall monitoring to a new Ministry of Transport.

• The transfer of the remaining parts of MPW to an autonomous road agency for primary and secondary roads with regional offices.


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Fig 1: Overall M

PW organisation in the future (beginning 2009)

Functions: Secretariat: Policy, Legislation, Legal, Inform

ation, Railw

ays, Internal audit Planning: Long term

planning, Medium

term planning, B

udgeting, Feasibility studies, Donor coordination, M

onitoring C

ontracting: Design, including surveys, Procurem

ent, including documents, C

ontract administration and Supervision

Maintenance: R

outine maintenance, including operations, Em

ergency maintenance, Labour-based w

orks A

dministration: Personnel, Paym

ents, Accounts, A

rchives, Training. N

otes: 1. Functions related to airports to be transferred to M

CA

T 2003/04 2. C

onstruction units to be established as road contracting companies.

3. The Reform

and Restructuring O

ffice will cease to exist w

hen the new organisation is in place. C

ontinued reform w

ill be handled by the Secretariat and Training w

ill become a responsibility of the A

dministration D

epartment.

4. The re gional organisation will com

prise some 8

regional offices serving the 32 provinces.

Minister of Public W

orks

Planning Departm

ent C

ontracting Departm

ent M

aintenance Departm

ent A

dministration D

epartment

Secretariat

Regional units

Regional units

Regional units

Regional units


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3 Approach to and Mechanism for Implementing Reform and Restructuring The approach to implementing reform and restructuring builds on the model set out in Information Paper 4.1. It is repeated here but has been adopted to the circumstances facing MPW. The first dimension of the approach to implementing reform is to do it in phases. Each phase shall have fixed and time bound outputs, and once (most of) those outputs have been achieved, then the reform and restructuring process may move onto the next phase2. An output will comprise:

• a new or a reformed department (in terms of the anticipated new organization; the Secretariat is also an output), which, following PRR status having been achieved, is able to essentially stand on its own feet.

• The launching of one or several state-owned construction companies, based on the units in the present Construction Department.

• A regionally based structure reporting to one of the new departments in the new organization, which, following PRR status having been achieved, is able to essentially stand on its own feet.

A second dimension of the approach is to establish clear priorities with regard to outputs in each phase. Assuming the entire reform and restructuring program to comprise 5 phases during five years, then the following tentative priorities can be made for the outputs of these phases:

Phase 1 outputs: Restructured Department of Maintenance Phase 2 outputs: New departments of planning and contracting (at HQ) Phase 3 outputs. New department of administration (at HQ), and a reformed Department

of Maintenance (see below). Phase 4 outputs: The Secretariat and Contractor Companies Phase 5 outputs: Regional organizations under each department.

It is suggested that the second priority after restructuring the Department of Maintenance (which is the first priority), should be the setting up of new departments for planning and contracting. The MPW is very weak in these two areas at present, which has meant that much of the present planning and procurement works is done outside MPW. In order to ensure the integrity of the road management function as well as MPW, including to promote effective coordination of the many donors contributing to the rehabilitation and development of the Afghan road sector, there is a need to urgently ensure that these two prime functions of a road manager can be handled within the MPW. The priority of other outputs will have to be reassessed later on as the reform and restructuring process has actually been initiated. A third dimension is to not undertake the reform and restructuring within an existing organization. A new administration department should thus not be established by reforming the existing department. The approach is rather to set up an embryonic new organization for administration first within the Reform and Restructuring Office, which will serve as the

2 Work on an output may, of course, overlap phases. That is the preparation of the output for phase 3 may be commenced already during phase 2, although most of the work will be done in phase 3.


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incubator (see below). This embryo (referred to as a unit) will only have the skeleton staff of a full department. Once the preparation for the new full department has been concluded, a PRR application will be made to have it established as a full department with its own PRR status. When this has been achieved, staff from the old department will be transferred to the new one, and the old will cease to exist. This will facilitate reform and support the need for ‘culture change’ in the MPW. One exception to this approach is, however, proposed, viz. for the Department of Maintenance, and for the following reasons. To initiate the reform and restructuring process in terms of the strategy proposed here will take some time. The current Department of Maintenance is to a large extent not functional at the present time. At the same time, the need for maintenance works as well as emergency repair works is increasing, as these works are not being attended to by the efforts financed by donors. Restructuring the present Department of Maintenance will therefore ensure a rapid improvement in the utilization of the available resources, and also that the government is able to start delivering urgently required road maintenance services. It is recognized that whilst the restructuring of the Maintenance Department proposed under the present Stage 2 application for PRR-status is not fully comprehensive, it will be vital to an overall successful long term transformation of MPW. However, it also envisaged that the Maintenance Department later on will undergo further reform as suggested by the outputs proposed above for phase 3. The mechanism to be used to implement reform and restructuring is the establishment of a new department at the beginning of the second phase, to be given PRR status and to be responsible for preparing for and implementing all major reform and restructuring activities from this phase onwards. This department may be called the Reform and Restructuring Office; it will be phased out at the end of Phase 5, and its closure is thus a further output of the last phase3. The proposed new Reform and Restructuring Office (RRO) will have a varying number of units corresponding to the outputs of each phase4. Thus during the second phase, it will comprise the following units (given the list of priorities above); see Fig 2:

1. Planning 2. Contracting 3. Capacity Building (CBU)

In terms of the priorities set out above, the RRO could have the structure as set out in Fig 3 during phase 3. ‘The Other Unit’ category reflects that one of the two units in phase 2 may not be ready for PRR status after phase 2, and will therefore require another phase for completion. Alternatively, work on a phase 4 output may already commence during phase 3.

3 Some its functions will then be taken over by other departments, including the Secretariat and the Administration Department. 4 For that reason, it is assumed that a new application for PRR status will have to be submitted for the RRO department in order to commence each phase.


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Fig. 2: Proposed Structure of Reform and Restructuring Office during Phase 2

Fig. 3: Possible Structure of Reform and Restructuring Office during Phase 3 Note: ‘Other unit’ reflects that one of the two units in phase 2 may not be ready for PRR status after phase 2, and will therefore require another phase for completion. Alternatively, work on a phase 4 output may already commence during phase 2.

Reform and Restructuring Office

Planning Unit Contracting Unit Capacity Building Unit

Technical Assistance Team Technical Assistance Team Technical Assistance Team

Reform and Restructuring Office

Administration Unit ’Other Unit’ Capacity Building Unit

Technical Assistance Team




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The functions of the CBU are to

1. Prepare preliminary designs for all the outputs. 2. Design Technical Assistance (TA) to assist with the final design and implementation

of the outputs (Some of the TA activities that will be required are indicated in Annex 2).

3. Manage all TA contracts. 4. Coordinate TA activities and donor support to the CBD. 5. Serve as main advisor to the Minister on all reform and restructuring activities. 6. Overall responsibility for the planning and execution of training programs 7. Address gender issues (see Information Paper 4.3).

Note that the CBU will remain part of the RRO until the end of phase 5. It is envisaged that the unit will be supported by TA; see further Section 4. The generic functions of the other units are to:

1. Prepare the final design of the output 2. Prepare for the implementation of the output 3. Prepare, where relevant, the application for PRR status to be given to the new unit.

It is envisaged that each unit will be supported by one TA team, to be managed by the unit itself. The overall control of the TA should, however, rest with the CBU. The mechanism proposed for effecting reform and restructuring can thus be illustrated by way of Figure 4. The key aspect of the mechanism is the RRO, the phasing approach and the building of new departments from scratch. The fuel used is the PRR mechanism and donor support.

Fig. 4: Outline of Mechanism for Reform and Restructuring of MPW

1. Identify the outputs of a phase 2. Apply for PRR status to be given to the RRO with an organizational structure

corresponding to the planned outputs. Since the RRO will change from phase to phase, with the exception of the CBU, a new application for the RRO will have to be submitted for each phase. (The CBU will however remain as part of the RRO during all phases.)

3. Recruit the key staff in the units (corresponding to the planned outputs), who will be filling PRR positions

4. Mobilize TA to assist with designing and implementing (preparing) the outputs. 5. Once preparation of an output is ready, then establish the new department by

applying for PRR-status (separate from that given to the RRO) being awarded to it.

6. Alternatively, if the output is not a department (or government agency) but a company, establish and launch the company.

7. When PRR status has been approved (or company launched), then transfer required staff from the existing (old) organization.

8. Continue capacity building within the new (PRR) department or company.


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The output, the Department of Maintenance will have the following capabilities after restructuring (at the end of phase 1):

1. Overall management and control of the employees in the Department in the country 2. The planning, organization and execution of routine maintenance and emergency

repairs. 3. The maintenance and control of equipment at its disposal. 4. Budgeting of the operations of the Maintenance Department. 5. The organization of further training for its employees.

The output, the new Planning Department, will have the following capabilities for it to attain PRR status on its own at the end of phase 2:

1. Overall medium- to long term programming of capital works 2. Medium term programming of maintenance works. 3. The management of the annual budget process, including coordination of the

budgets of other Departments. 4. The performance of simplified pre-feasibility and feasibility studies. 5. The operations of a simplified road and traffic data bank. 6. The preparation and implementation of studies by consultants. 7. Overall coordination of projects planned for financing by donors. 8. The monitoring of the implementation of capital projects, long-term maintenance

contracts and periodic maintenance operations. The output, the new Contracting Department, will have the following capabilities for it to attain PRR status on its own at the end of phase 2:

1. The general understanding of preparation of detailed designs for capital works, including undertaking of surveys.

2. The preparation of documents for procurement of capital works, long-term maintenance works as well as periodic maintenance works, including procurement of such works.

3. The preparation of specifications for in-house routine maintenance emergency repair operations.

4. The supervision of capital and maintenance works, including contracts for these works. 5. Overall coordination and management of the implementation of donor financed

projects. 6. Costing and budgeting 7. Recruitment and management of consultants for preparing final designs, contract

documents and supervision. Next Steps Assuming approval being given to the Stage 2 application for PRR-status to be awarded to the Department of Maintenance, the following would be the next steps:


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1. The Department of Maintenance should undergo the restructuring provided for under the Stage 2 application.

2. The Ministry should initiate the process for preparing for submitting an application for

PRR status to be awarded to the proposed RRO (Phase 2) by appointing a committee for this purpose. This committee (the RRO Committee) will be supported by the advisors to the Ministry.

3. The RRO Committee will commence its work by preparing TOR (outline TOR are

above in para. 4.10) for the TA team to man the CBU unit in the RRO. This unit is envisaged to comprise three experts on a full time-basis, over, initially, a three-year period, and costing in approximate terms $ 2.3 million. It is highly desirable that at least one of these experts is of Afghan decent and fluent in at least Dari, and preferably also Pashto5. These experts would have the following competencies:

• The management, organization and operations of a roads department/authority • Systems, procedures and management information systems used by a roads

department/authority • Development and implementation of training programs, as well as recruitment

under and management of donor financed TA projects

4. The RRO committee would approach donors to obtain funding for the TA team to man the CBU, and attempt to initiate a fast-track recruitment of this team. This should, if possible, be commenced before the end of 2003.

5. Early in 2004, the RRO Committee would commence the process of applying for PRR

status to be awarded to the RRO (phase 2). The final work on the Stage 2 application for the RRO, should, to the extent possible, be done in consultation with the TA Team to man the CBU.

6. Whilst working on the application for PRR-status to be awarded to the RRO, the RRO

committee should prepare the TOR for the two teams6 to assist with the setting up of the Planning and Contracting Departments, and should approach donors for financial assistance. The duration of the TA is expected to be about 2 years. Recruitment of the TA teams should be initiated.

7. When the Stage 2 application for the RRO has been submitted and the TA Team to

man its CBU has been completed, the reform and restructuring process will continue as per Chapter 3 above.

Recommendations It is proposed that the MPW accepts the strategy for reforming, restructuring and strengthening of MPW as set out above. 5 An alternative is to fill one of the three positions with two young professionals of Afghan decent with some relevant experience from abroad. 6 The TA could be provided under one contract and with one TA team.


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Actions Following acceptance, in principle, of the Strategy the next steps would comprise the following:

4. Prepare complete TOR for the Team of Consultants to assist with the reform, restructuring and strengthening of the MPW.

5. Solicit funding for this Team of Consultants (about USD 2.3 million), and undertake recruitment.

6. Initiate the process for application of PRR-status to be awarded to a new department in the MPW to be called the Capacity Building Office (CBO). This Office would initially be expected to comprise a Capacity Building Unit, a Planning Unit and a Contracting Unit..


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ANNEX 1: Outline Terms of Reference for Technical Assistance to Capacity Building Unit, MPW.

Project : Technical Assistance to the Capacity Building Unit, MPW Implementing Agency:


Duration:

Three years

Year of Commencement:

Immediate

Objectives:

Assist MPW to reform, restructure and to be strengthened through its Capacity Building Unit (CBU)

Tasks:

1 Assist with applications for PRR-status 2 Prepare detailed strategy for Reform and

Restructuring 3 Prepare preliminary designs for all the outputs

of the strategy. 4 Design Technical Assistance (TA) to assist with

the final design and implementation of the outputs.

5 Manage all TA contracts for which MPW is the Executing Agency.

6 Coordinate TA activities and donor support to the CBD.

7 Serve as main advisor to the Minister on all reform and restructuring activities.

8 Overall responsibility for the planning and execution of training programs

9 Assist with the mobilisation of funds for TA. 10 Assist with the implementation of TA projects for which MPW is not executing agency 11 Serve as Gender focal point to Gender Advisory

Group. 12 Address the Gender issues identified in

Information Paper 4.3.

Estimated Cost:

USD 2.3 million


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ANNEX 2: Additional TA that the CBU will have to consider as part of its reform and restructuring work. The list below is only indicative of some of the expertise that will be required as part of the reform and restructuring of MPW. It will be up to the CBU to make more definitive proposals in this regard, and also package the technical assistance in such a way that the principle of one team per output is upheld. (a) Road network classification, inventory, condition survey, traffic counting and axle load

surveys (1 adviser for 18 months) (b) Developing a Road Asset Management System (RAMS) (1 adviser for 24 months) (c) Training in labour-based maintenance operations (1 adviser for 24 moths) (d) Transfer of MPW staff to the private sector (1 adviser for 18 months) (e) Strengthening of the local contracting industry (1 adviser for 24 months) (f) Development of efficient contract maintenance practices (1 adviser for 18 months) (g) Development of sound contract administration practices (1 adviser for 18 months) (h) Development of road network management organisation (1 adviser for 24 months) (i) Procurement of plant and tools for labour-based road maintenance (same adviser as in (c))

Policy Paper 2.4

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Policy Paper 2.4

Financing of the Road Sector Executive Summary The current situation in Afghanistan is that road users pay no specific taxes on vehicles, fuel and spares. This Paper reviews road financing issues, and makes proposals for a policy on road financing in the short term based on road user charges, i.e. direct charges on road users. It also outlines a policy for the medium term. Five different options based on road user charges are evaluated. Indicative numbers suggest that for the near future, it will only be possible to recover maintenance (including operations) costs by way of road user charges in Afghanistan. It is possible that road user charges in a medium term perspective may be used to recover both routine and periodic maintenance costs. Full cost recovery by way of road user charges is not an option for Afghanistan for many years to come (with the exception of limited road sections with high traffic intensity). Six different criteria are used to assess the options considered. The outcome of the assessment is that in the short term the preferred option is to introduce tolls to finance long term maintenance contracts of rehabilitated roads. In a longer term perspective, systems based on conventional road user charges (e.g. a surcharge per litre of fuel) are viewed as superior to systems based on tolls. They are better in order to minimise fraud, and administrative costs are small. Therefore, in the medium term the best option is a system comprising surcharges on fuels and vehicles, which may be considered once a regime of taxation of fuels on road users has been imposed and a functioning vehicle register is in place. Recommendations: A system for the imposition tolls on vehicles using national roads, which have been upgraded and/or rehabilitated should be introduced in the near future. The toll revenues should be used to finance the contracts for routine maintenance (including operations) of these roads, following completion of the upgrading and/or rehabilitation works, and the tolls should be set to provide for full financing of these contracts. The system should allow for a specific contract to be financed exclusively by the tolls collected on the road concerned, as well as cross-subsidisation between different roads, which have been upgraded or rehabilitated. Actions: A complete design of the recommended new system, including draft legislation, should be prepared. Additionally a plan for its implementation should be prepared. The World Bank should be approached for the financing of this design and plan, under the Emergency Transport and Rehabilitation Project (ETRP).

Policy Paper 2.4

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Purpose This Paper reviews road financing issues, and makes proposals for a policy on road financing in the short term based on road user charges, i.e. direct charges on road users. It also outlines a policy for the medium term. Background Most countries finance the construction and maintenance of public roads by way of appropriations from the government’s central revenue fund. Road users pay various taxes on vehicles, fuel, vehicle-usage (generally in the form of weight-distance taxes, but also paid as tolls), and on spares for vehicles. Whilst these taxes are specific (and separate from ordinary taxes on income, capital and consumption), they are normally not earmarked. They generate income for the central revenue fund of the government. However, there are nowadays many examples to be found around the world of how road users pay charges which generate revenues which are not for the benefit of the central revenue fund, but are used directly to finance road works. There are numerous different variants. The current situation in Afghanistan is that road users pay no specific taxes on vehicles, fuel and spares. Until recently and in theory, Afghanistan had a self-financing system for roads. The pedigree was a toll system implemented in 19741, which generated funds for the central revenue fund, but did not contain any elements of earmarking. The tolls were collected by way of a system of toll stations scattered throughout the country. As from 1999, a new system was implemented by way of a new regulation replacing the previous one2. The new system continued the previous toll collection system, but also introduced earmarking. The toll revenues were to be spent on construction, reconstruction and maintenance of paved highways as well as the maintenance of other paved roads. Toll collection was organised by the MPW and the tolls were viewed as a source of revenue for the Ministry of Public Works (MPW). Through a decision by the High Council of Ministers on September 23, 2002 this road toll system was abolished3. Additionally, mention should be made of that separate charges are imposed on trucks at present, which are collected at ‘toll’ stations. The charge is per ton of the payload of trucks as a proxy for the value of the transport contract. This charge, which is still being collected, is for the benefit of the Ministry of Transport, and not the road sector. In this Paper various options for financing of the public road network available to the TISA will be identified and reviewed. The options will be limited to methods for direct financing of the road network, i.e. they all involve a form of road user charge. The Paper does not discuss the imposition of specific taxes, e.g. a tax on fuel used by vehicles, as such instruments are always available, in principle, but generate revenues which may be used to finance all types of government expenditure4.

1 Toll Fees for Motor Vehicles, Official Bulletin, No. (238), dated 7 October 1974 2 Regulations for Collecting Toll Fees, Official Bulletin, No. (786), dated 13 July, 1999 3 Decree General No. 43 of September 23, 2002, Special No. 13, (1381 H.Q) 4 The driving force behind the need to review road user charges is the very high cost burden that Afghanistan will be facing once the roads, under present reconstruction programmes, will require maintenance. In the near

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The options considered only include charges on users of roads. In some countries, charges are imposed on those who indirectly benefit from a road, e.g. industry or land owners along a road. Systems based on charging industry are being phased out (e.g. in the Russian Federation) as they are seen as not promoting economic efficiency and often inadequately satisfy the ‘benefit’ principle, i.e. that those who benefit should pay. The withdrawal of (part) of the economic rent generated by roads in the form of increased land values is difficult, and normally yields small sums of money5. Options

The options available, in principle, are: 1. Conventional road user charges (i.e. surcharges on fuel, annual charges on

vehicles, and sometimes other charges related to vehicle usage.) Note that these charges are not taxes as the revenues are channelled back to the road sector, as discussed further below. Conventional charges are to be found in quite a number of countries, but only one country in the world has implemented a fully-fledged system based on conventional charges, i.e. New Zealand.

2. General tolls, i.e. toll systems which are similar to the one in place until

September last year. These systems are very rare in an international perspective. 3. Private sector financing. A concession is awarded to a separate legal entity to

build and/or operate a road for a period of time. Normally, the costs of the entity are recovered by way of tolls which it collects directly itself. This approach is common in Europe, the US and East Asia for roads with high levels of traffic, as well as for expensive infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels.

4. Road tolls on specific beneficiaries of road works. For example, tolls are only

collected on bridges, on new roads or on rehabilitated/upgraded roads, i.e. on those parts of the network where the road user can see a clear benefit of the road works. Note that these tolls are collected for the benefit of the government and roads in general, and are not necessarily used to defray the expenses of the road works concerned. This system is to be found in e.g. Pakistan.

5. Road tolls for financing specific contracts for road works. For example, toll

revenues are used to finance contracts for maintaining and operating specific parts of the road network. In Afghanistan such tolls could be imposed on roads which have been reconstructed and upgraded, and where the road users could identify the benefits of the improvement as well as the maintenance required to sustain that improvement. There are two variants. In one variant, the toll revenues from different roads are pooled and used to finance a number of similar maintenance contracts. In the other, the toll revenues collected on a specific road are used exclusively to finance the contract for that particular road.

future these costs will amount to US$ 10 million p.a. later rising to over US$ 100 million p.a. See further the Annex to the Overview Paper for Roads. 5 One variant of this approach is the road association to be found in Scandinavian countries. Local roads are run by and financed by the owners of the properties served by the roads.

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This second option is very close to option 3. The main difference is that for option 3, the private entity is (normally) expected to bear the traffic risk. In option 5, the state is the risk taker.

The following should be noted: 1. To implement any of these schemes legislation will be required to enable the

state to impose the charges or tolls or to empower a private entity to collect tolls. 2. The realisation of any of these options would generate additional funds for

financing of the road sector, in particular, and the public sector, in general. The incidence of these options would be on road users and/or on those who benefit indirectly from road use.

3. With the exception of option 3 (the private/concession option), a mechanism is

required for how to channel revenues back to the road sector, bypassing the ordinary appropriation process of the government. There are several alternatives. One is similar to the mechanism used until recently in Afghanistan. The money goes to the road authority, which may spend it in terms of a plan/budget approved by parliament/cabinet. Another alternative is to vest the power to allocate the funds in a separate entity; such an entity is often referred to as a road fund. There are numerous examples of road funds around the world, e.g. in Africa, Latin America and Asia (although it should be noted that in reality most road funds actually have limited powers as to what decisions they can make6). For all options (except 3), an account separate from the ordinary government account is required. This account is sometimes referred to as a special deposit account7.

4. For all options, a mechanism, a regulatory regime, is required for how to set the

level of the road user charges (including tolls and conventional charges). What Should Road User Charges Recover? The basic principle of regulatory regimes for road user charges is that these are to be set so as to recover identified costs (seen in a longer perspective), as well as ensuring a reasonable return on invested money in the case of private sector financing (option 3). The following are the alternatives to be found in different countries:

- routine maintenance (including operations, i.e. snow removal, etc.). - routine and periodic maintenance8 - all maintenance and capital costs for construction and/or reconstruction, i.e.

‘full’ cost recovery.

6 The two main exceptions are the Namibian Road Fund Administration (NRFA) and TransFund New Zealand. NRFA can also set the level of the road user charges generating funds for the road fund, subject to the legal requirements. In New Zealand cabinet must approve any changes in the road user charges. 7 Many road funds do not operate in terms of a separate account, but rely on transfers from the central government account. 8 Periodic maintenance mainly refers to new overlays, which are periodic cost and required after a period of between 6 to 10 years.

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To indicate what is feasible in Afghanistan some indicative figures will be used with reference to the national road network of the country. 1. The average daily traffic on these roads vary between 300 vehicles up to about

3000 vehicles. Roughly speaking 70% are cars, 8% are buses and 22% are buses. 2. The average cost of routine maintenance per year and km is estimated at

between US$ 2700 (300 vehicles/day) to US$ 5000 (3000 vehicles/day). The average cost of routine and periodic maintenance per year and km can be estimated at between US$ 4500 (300 vehicles/day) to US$ 14000 (3000 vehicles/day), and the average cost of the sum of maintenance and reconstruction cost per km and year can be estimated, in vary rough terms, at as a minimum US$ 20000 per km and year.

3. Based on the toll rates that were applicable until 2002 in Afghanistan, a flow of

traffic of 300 vehicles per day would generate about US$ 800 per year and km, and a flow of 3000 about US$ 8000 per year and km. Conventional wisdom indicates that affordable road user charges in a developing country is on average about 1 US cent per km9, which is in approximate terms 35% above the level applied in Afghanistan last year. Assuming that an affordable level of a road user charge for Afghanistan would also be about 1 US cent per km, then it can be estimated that a flow of 300 would generate as a maximum US$ 1100 per km and year and a flow of 3000 would generate as a maximum of US$ 11000 per km and year.

These indicative numbers suggest that for the near future, it will only be possible to recover maintenance (including operations) costs by way of road user charges in Afghanistan. It is possible that road user charges in a medium term perspective may be used to recover both routine and periodic maintenance costs. Full cost recovery by way of road user charges is not an option for Afghanistan for many years to come (with the exception of limited road sections with high traffic intensity). Criteria for Assessment The following criteria are used in order to assess the options:

(a) Feasibility, i.e. can the option actually be implemented in the near future (say within a 2 year period). If an option is deemed not feasible, further assessment in terms of the following criteria is not made.

(b) Efficiency, i.e. is economic efficiency improved, or not, if the option is

implemented

(c) Benefit principle, is there are a clear relationship between those who pay and those who benefit.

9 Heggie, Ian & Piers Vickers (1998): Commercial Management and Financing of Roads, World Bank Technical Paper Number 409, The World Bank,. Washington, D.C.

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(d) Administrative costs

(e) The need to preserve the integrity of the system and minimise the risk of fraud

(f) Governance, i.e. the need to ensure the proper use of the funds generated by the

road user charges, including the setting of charges. This dimension is closely related to the mechanism used to channel revenues back to the road sector.

Assessment

Criteria (a): Options 1 and 3 are deemed as not being feasible in the short term. The main reasons for that option 1 is not feasible is that it is primarily based on charges on fuel and vehicles. Charges on fuel cannot be considered until taxes on fuel for vehicles are being or have been imposed. The efficient administration of such a system typically is based on an arrangement whereby the taxes, and therefore also the fuel charges, are collected by the oil distributing companies. Charges on vehicles require an effective vehicle register, which does not exist at present.

Since risks are considerable in Afghanistan at present, the private sector option is not deemed to be feasible. Such solutions will entail high tolls to recover the risk premium. Hence the feasible options are the ones in which the state bears the traffic risks.

The remaining options, i.e. 2, 4 and 5, are, on the other hand, deemed as viable options in the short term10. The viable options therefore involve road tolls generating revenues for the government to be used in the road sector.

Criteria (b): The introduction of any of the three tolling options would improve economic efficiency. In view of that no taxes or charges are imposed at present, and all vehicle usage gives rise to economic costs (including road wear and damage, congestion and environmental impact), the imposition of taxes and charges on road users is justified from an efficiency point of view. Presumably option 2, which involves tolls on a system (or network) of roads, is better than options 4 and 5, which involve tolls on selected roads.

Criteria (c): All the remaining options satisfy the benefit principle, as already argued. However, from the point of view of road users, benefits can only be identified when there is a ‘obvious’ benchmark representing a situation without the road works concerned. In options 4 and 5, tolls are imposed on account of an improvement (reconstruction and upgrading) in the road network and/or the provision of maintenance and operations services, which yield benefits which are identifiable to the road user. On these grounds it may be argued that options 4 and 5 better satisfy the benefit principle than option 2 Criteria (d): Administrative costs associated with tolls are generally high, as they require the collection and administration of cash. There is, in principle, no distinction in this regard between options 2, 4 and 5.

10 The main argument is the previous toll system, which was operational.

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Criteria (e): The integrity of a tolling system is difficult to ensure under the present circumstances in Afghanistan. Tolling systems are also exposed to the risk of fraud because of the handling of cash. Option 5 is the best system in this regard, as it allows for the contractor(s) for the road works to be engaged also in the collection of the tolls. Since the contractor is being paid by way of the toll revenues (albeit backed up by a government guarantee), he has a vested interest in ensuring the integrity of the system. Criteria (f): General tolls (option 2) as well as option 4 require a mechanism for how to allocate the toll revenues back to road works. There is, in addition, a need to ensure that after that allocation has been made, the money is put to proper use. This is demanding in view of that the present planning, budgeting and follow-up systems of MPW operations are poorly developed. Option 5 is much simpler in this regard as the money collected is tied to the financing of specific contracts. The main issue to be dealt with is how to set the level of the tolls to ensure that enough money is generated to be able to finance the contracts11. The outcome of the assessment in terms of the indicated criteria, is that option 5 is the preferred one for the short term. It is recommended that both variants, i.e. that the tolls may both be linked to one contract (i.e. one road) or to a number of contracts (i.e. a collection of roads), be allowed for. The reason is that some roads are faced with specific demands, e.g. the road through the Salang tunnel, giving rise to the need to set much higher tolls than for other roads.

Assessment for the Medium Term As a whole, and over a longer term perspective, systems based on conventional road user charges are viewed as superior to systems based on tolls. They are better in order to minimise fraud, and administrative costs are small. Fully-developed conventional road user charges also have good efficiency properties. And these are also the reasons why most countries, which are moving away from traditional road financing and towards financing by way of charging road users, are making use of such conventional road user charges. Therefore, in the medium term, the main option is the first one, an option which may be considered once a regime of taxation of fuels on road users has been imposed and a vehicle register is in place, including the related management capacity. This also suggests (and is a further argument for) why a system of general road tolls (option 2) is not a good option in the short term. If such a system is introduced, it will eventually become more difficult to have it dismantled. Option 5, on the other hand, is easier to phase out, as it is effectively linked to the financing of a specific number of contracts. Since these contracts would be assumed to be for periods of some 4-6 years12, phasing out in a medium term perspective is more or less automatic.

11 A related issue is the relative level of the tolls imposed on different types of vehicles. The toll scale used in the system in operation in Afghanistan until 2002 was apparently acceptable to road users, and was also similar to the one used in many other countries. 12 The initial contracts for road maintenance following rehabilitation should not include overlay (i.e. periodic maintenance) works. They should therefore not last for more than 4-6 years.

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Recommendations A system for the imposition tolls on vehicles using national roads, which have been upgraded and/or rehabilitated should be introduced in the near future. The toll revenues should be used to finance the contracts for routine maintenance (including operations) of these roads, following completion of the upgrading and/or rehabilitation works, and the tolls should be set to provide for full financing of these contracts. The system should allow for a specific contract to be financed exclusively by the tolls collected on the road concerned, as well as cross-subsidisation between different roads, which have been upgraded or rehabilitated. Actions A complete design of the recommended new system, including draft legislation, should be prepared. Additionally a plan for its implementation should be prepared. The World Bank should be approached for the financing of this design and plan, under the Emergency Transport and Rehabilitation Project (ETRP).

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The Long Term Institutional Arrangements in the Road Sector Executive Summary The purpose of this Consultation Paper 2.5 is to provide a vision of the long term structure for the management of the road infrastructure, concerning institutional and funding arrangements in particular. In line with national policy, an institutional framework for road management is envisaged to have the following key features:

• One and the same Ministry is made responsible for all national roads. • That Ministry will only be concerned with policy, planning and monitoring. The

management of roads and funds are delegated to autonomous agencies. • An autonomous Highway Agency will be responsible for the management of the road

network, according to the policy and plans laid down by the Ministry. • Another autonomous agency will be responsible for the management of a Road Fund,

to cover the operations and maintenance of the network. • Commercial consultants and contractors will be responsible for the implementation of

the required services and works through competitive contracting. The key principles underlying the proposed structure may be summarized as follows:

• The delegation of road and fund management from the Ministry to autonomous agencies facilitates transparency of all transactions and relieves politicians from involvement in the details of day-to-day management.

• The separation of the autonomous agencies for road management and for the management of funds facilitates a clear split of purchaser and provider functions, with well defined responsibilities.

• The participation in the management of the autonomous agencies by road users and civil society promotes public confidence in their work.

• The introduction of commercialized management practices, with transparent contracting of services and external performance auditing, promotes efficiency as well as fair competition.

• The agency concept gives management the power to hire and fire staff on basis of skills and merit, and apply market-oriented pay scales as approved by the Board of the agency.

The implementation of the new structure must also pay attention to main, general policy issues like the generation of employment opportunities. Support is needed for the local construction industry to develop, for example through the use of suitable contract packages. Labour based technology should be used where possible. This Paper is for information only. There is no recommendation or action.


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Background and Purpose The general purpose of the Transport Sector Review is to prepare and discuss policies for the transport sector, including recommendations towards the implementation of the proposed policies. Key policy issues were identified and agreed during Phase 1, for further analysis during Phase 2. This Information Paper 2.5 is one of a series to develop more detailed policy recommendations, strategies and action plans in the identified key areas. The paper focuses on the long term structure for the management of the road infrastructure, concerning institutional and funding arrangements in particular. Long term in this context is at least five years and perhaps ten, depending on the progress of related legal and institutional reforms as well as on the general policy framework. Future policy must result from due political process and it would be presumptuous of this paper to try and pre-empt such a process. Since the long term policy cannot be predicted, detailed long term recommendations would be neither meaningful nor possible. What is described as future arrangements in the following should be considered as visions based on the existing policy framework and foreseen, more short term developments. The short term strategies and actions recommended for the road sector are described in the consultation papers 2.1 (organisation of MPW), 2.2 (functions of MPW), 2.3 (capacity building of MPW) and 2.4 (funding of roads). Road Policy Framework A review of the national policy guidelines shows that Government recognizes international experience of development assistance on a number of key issues:

• That it is more cost-effective to split the political role of government from management, implementation and the provision of services.

• The need to invest in human capital, the rule of law, the creation of systems of accountability and transparency, and provision of the enabling environment for the operation of the private sector.

• Methods of governance that enable the people to participate in decision-making on issues that affect them and their immediate environment.

• The need to anchor donor-funded projects in coherent programs of government, in order for such projects to be sustainable.

For planning and institutional development within the transport sector, the national policy guidelines further indicate that Afghanistan will move towards an institutional structure where:

• Central Government sets policies and investment priorities, and monitors their implementation, but will not be the implementing agency.


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• Provincial, urban and local government is made responsible for allocating resources and managing expenditures within their own geographical areas.

• The provision of services and works are contracted out to private sector contractors, appointed on a competitive basis.

• A rational and equitable program of user charges will be introduced to generate funds that can be earmarked for maintenance of the highways network.

Like other sectors of the economy, the road and transport sector must also pay due attention to more general policy issues like the generation of employment and the enhancement of opportunities for women. In its management of the road infrastructure, Government will seek to sustain and develop an adequate road network in support of national socioeconomic goals, by providing, maintaining, improving and regulate all roads in order to:

• Ensure access to important centres in rural and urban areas • Ensure access to neighbouring states • Provide an adequate level of service and minimize total transport costs • Provide an acceptable level of safety to road users • Minimize detrimental impacts on social life, property and the environment

Management of the Road Infrastructure Following the policy outlined above, a suitable institutional framework for the management of the national road network could be similar to the one outlined in Figure 1 (next page). The key features of this concept are:

• The responsibility for all roads is vested in one Minister and his Ministry, to facilitate the coordination of plans, programs and use of available capacity.

• The Minister and his Ministry will only be concerned with setting policy and approval of plans and programs, and the monitoring of their implementation. Management of roads and funds are delegated to autonomous agencies.

• One autonomous Highway Agency will be responsible for the management of the national road network; with preparation of plans and programs and with the execution of approved programs. Private sector consultants and contractors for those tasks are selected through competitive bidding.

• There will be provincial, urban and rural road agencies as may be desired following the new constitution. All these should be provided with assistance by the Highway Agency as and when needed.

• There will be one autonomous agency responsible for management of road funding, in particular funding of road maintenance and operations. This agency will be responsible for collection of the funds from the authorized sources, for disbursing the required funds according to approved programs, and for monitoring that funds are used efficiently as intended.

• The construction industry including consultants will be responsible for delivering the required services and works through competitive contracting, at the time, quality and price specified.


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Private Sector Road Construction Industry

General Public

Fig 1: Outline Institutional Framework for Road Management Road Funding Agency (Board, CEO, Staff) The Ministry of Public Works With the structure outlined above, the Ministry of Public Works would in the first instance also take over the responsibility for Rural Roads from the Ministry of Rural Reconstruction and Development. The responsibilities of the Ministry of Public Works would include:

• Drafting the new Roads Act (the legal foundation of road management) • Reviewing Policy as required,

Highway Agency. (Board, CEO, Staff)

- Main Roads Section - Urban Road Section - Rural Roads Section

Other Road Agencies - Provincial (Board, CEO, Staff) - Urban (Board, CEO, Staff) - Rural

National Assembly

Government (Cabinet)

Minister Responsible For Roads

Ministry Responsible For Roads


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• Preparation and managing the implementation of a Road Sector Policy and Development Plan.

• Monitoring the implementation of policy and institutional reforms. • Review and approve investment programs.

For its new role, the Ministry would only retain a small staff of highly skilled managers, engineers, planners, economists, plus some administrative staff. Engineers trained in contract management and other skilled managers, planners, engineers, and financial management staff may find jobs in the new Highway Agency. The operating units for survey, design and the execution of road works are commercialized and in time - as the competence and capacity of the private sector develops - privatized. The Highway Agency The Highway Agency will be an autonomous agency responsible for the management of the National road network, according to the plans and programs prepared by the Ministry. Engineering services and road works according to these programs will be contracted out, but the Highway Agency must retain sufficient competence and capacity for the contract management. A few road maintenance units may also be retained for emergency purposes. A Chief Executive Officer will manage the Agency under the guidance of a Board of Directors. These Directors should include representatives of the key ministries concerned, for the road users and for other private and public interests (except the interests of the construction industry). The new constitution may provide for some local government by regions or provinces, larger urban areas and municipalities, and rural areas. The regional/ provincial governments and governments of the larger urban areas may have autonomous or semi-autonomous agencies following the Highway Agency model, to manage roads/streets under their jurisdiction. The Road Fund The Road Fund will be an autonomous agency responsible for collecting sufficient funds for road management and maintenance; for disbursing funds according to approved spending programs; and for monitoring that the money is efficiently spent as intended. The Road Fund will thus fund its own operations as well as the operational expenses of the Highway Agency and other road agencies, according to agreed principles and spending limits. The structure and function of Board of the Road Fund will be similar to that of the Highway Agency. To ensure a clear division of responsibilities, however, it is essential that the two boards are separate with no common members. Funding of Road Sector Management The road sector will be provided with earmarked financial instruments for adequate, secure and sustainable financing of required operational, management and maintenance operations. These expenditures must be prioritized over any capital expenditures. Only when full funding


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of management, operations and maintenance is ensured should contributions towards capital expenditure be considered. Funding of most road management and maintenance may be provided by a two-part road tariff which includes a dedicated annual vehicle license fee to gain access to the public road network, and a fuel levy as a proxy for a direct network user fee. The annual vehicle license fee will be differentiated in line with the impact various vehicles have on road maintenance costs with account taken for what these vehicles pay through the fuel levy and the levels that may be acceptable when compared with fees levied elsewhere. The fuel levy might be differentiated between petrol and diesel fuel due to external factors. The Vehicle and Driver Licensing Agency (see Cross-cutting Themes Paper 4.2) may be contracted to collect the annual vehicle access fee. The proceeds from the fee should immediately be credited a special bank account the Road Fund has established with a commercial bank. The fuel levy may be collected at the wholesale level by importers and domestic manufactures of automotive fuel, and likewise be directly credited special Road Fund bank accounts in commercial banks. For regular maintenance of local urban and rural public access roads, the Road Fund may only be set up to provide that part of the required funding which corresponds to required expenditures on fuel, imported materials and use of equipment by labour-based technology. Labour may in this case either be provided locally or be funded from local or other sources. It is anticipated that capital investments, i.e. road rehabilitation, upgrading and new construction, will initially be funded through the Public Investment Program. It is suggested that the Road Fund is not obliged to provide funding for capital expenditures before available instruments can generate funds above those required for management and maintenance The vital road links through the Salang pass and through the Kabul gorge require continuous and extensive maintenance efforts to ensure the desired road services. The required works on these links might be contracted out by longer-term performance based contracts, and funded by tolls collected at tollgates. These contracts should be tendered and managed by the Highway Agency and monitored by the Road Fund. Development Strategy General Successful implementation of agreed policy and institutional reforms require a carefully designed development and implementation strategy. This strategy has to take account of public sentiments and the situation on the labour market, as well as on current institutional and legal structures. It is anticipated that the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Transport will manage the process towards agreement on policy and institutional reforms of their concern, and manage the implementation. Where implementation of reforms require technical assistance, it is likely that this assistance will include appropriate components of formal training and support.


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Prior to the implementation of any reforms that may affect people’s jobs and socio-economic environment, it is important to launch comprehensive awareness campaigns directed at the affected groups to obtain their acceptance and cooperation. Management and Advisory Boards can be useful instruments to include stakeholders in planning and decision-making, and to promote transparency and accountability. The Ministry of Public Works Although a large part of the small but highly qualified staff required for the Ministry’s new role, a small specialized technical assistance team is likely to be required during a transition phase. In addition to the task of developing and implementing appropriate methods for the regular work, team should have sufficient capacity to assist with urgent tasks such as the drafting of a new Roads Act. The suggested technical assistance should be a suitable project for financing by bilateral donors. The Highway Agency The role and activity of the Highway Agency will be quite different from the role and operations of the traditional management units in the Ministry of Public Works. Extensive technical assistance will be required to introduce appropriate management systems, procedures and technology, and training of qualified staff in their use. Such technical assistance services could be provided, for example, through a twinning agreement with a well-established Highway Agency in a developed country, or by a qualified consulting firm with experience from similar projects. The Road Fund Technical assistance will be needed for the design of the Road Fund organization, systems and operational procedures. The World Bank should be able to advise on sufficiently qualified consultants or organisations for the purpose. Grant financing from a bilateral donor may be possible. The Local Construction Industry Support is needed for the local construction industry to develop. Government and international financing agencies can promote such development by designing suitable contract packages, and by encouraging international contractors to use local subcontractors. Government’s commitment to provide employment opportunities through public works programs should be supported through the maximum possible use of labour based technology. Both design and contract specifications have to be tailored to this technology to facilitate effective execution by small and medium sized labour based contractors. An extensive program for training of labour based contractors is needed.

Consultation Paper

The Transitional Islamic Government of Afghanistan

Transport Sector Review Road Infrastructure

Operational Budgets and Financing

June 2003

Presented by

Hifab International, SMEC International Pty Ltd & Prisma Consulting

S H

Take away logos

Road Infrastructure


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Table of Contents

Table of Contents i

List of Tables ii

List of Figures ii

Glossary iii

Executive Summary iv Road Network iv Capital Projects iv Road Maintenance v Maintenance Budget vii Rehabilitation and Maintenance Programme viii Financing x Conclusion x

1. Terms of Reference 1 2. Outline 1 3. The Road Network 2 4. Topography and Climate 2 5. Road Standards 3 6. Road and Bridge Capital Works 4 7. Capital Works - Donor Funded Projects 4 8. Capital Works – Non Donor Funded Projects 5 9. Investment Programme 7 10. Road Maintenance 9 11. Maintenance Activities 10 12. Routine Maintenance 11 13. Winter Maintenance 12 14. Periodic Maintenance 12 15. Emergency Repairs 13 16. Maintenance Management 14 17. Indicative Maintenance Management Strategy 15 18. Maintenance Budget 16 19. Maintenance Programme 19 20. Financing 21 21. Conclusion 24 References 25

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List of Tables Table 1 Road Classification and Condition 2 Table 2 Summary of Donor Programme 5 Table 3 Donor Programme by Road Classification 5 Table 4 Funded Works (See Appendix 2) 6 Table 5 Rehabilitaion Needs 7 Table 6 Estimated Road Length Rehabilitated Each Year 8 Table 7 Annual Investment Budget for Road Rehabilitation 2002-2013 (USD

Millions) 8 Table 8 Maintenance Costs 18 Table 9 Average Maintenance Costs 19 Table 10 Percentage of Road Length in Good or Fair Condition 2002-2013 20 Table 11 Annual Maintenance Budgets 2002-2013 (USD Millions) 20 Table 12 Financing of Donor Projects 21 Table 13 Summary of Required Road Budget 23 Table 14 Overall Road Budget Financing (USD millions) 24

List of Figures Figure 1 Annual Investment in Road Rehabilitation 9 Figure 2 Annual Maintenance Costs 2002-2013 21 Figure 3 Total Annual Cost of Afghanistan Road Network 22

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Glossary AACA Afghanistan Assistance Coordination Authority AADT Average Annual Daily Traffic AC Asphaltic Concrete ACLU Afghanistan Construction and Logistics Unit ADB Asian Development Bank ARCS Afghanistan Road Condition Survey CNA Comprehensive Needs Assessment (by ADB) EU European Union GoA Government of Afganistan (TIGA) IAA Interim Afghanistan Administration IRI International Roughness Index km kilometre MoPW Ministry of Public Works NDF National Development Framework (of Afghanistan) NGO Non-government Organistaion pa per annum ROCKS Road Costs Knowledge System (by World Bank) SIDA Swedish Internaional Development Agency TIGA Transitional Islamic Government of Afganistan (GoA) TSR Transport Sector Reviw UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNOPS United Nations Office of Project Services USAID United States Agency for International Development USD United State Dollars yr year

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Executive Summary The consultation paper on Operational Budgets and Financing identifies the proposed capital works programme and sets out an indicative programme of road maintenance activities and financing needs for Afghanistan for the next five years. Unless otherwise noted the costs, budgets and exchange rates used in this document are current as at 31 May 2003.

In developing the proposed budget for investment in and maintenance of the road network the following steps were undertaken:

1. Review programme of road investment projects for the next 5 years and determine budget required

2. Estimate budget required to meet the needs for sustainable maintenance of the fully rehabilitated (ie. future) road network

3. Estimate the length of road that will be in fair or good condition and thus must be maintained in the intermediate years (ie. The progressively rehabilitated network)

4. Estimate maintenance budget required in the intermediate years.

Road Network

The Afghanistan road network is comprised of the following approximate lengths of road:

Table 1 Road Classification and Condition (2003, estimated)

Road Classification Total Length

(kms)

Percent in “Good” or “Fair” Condition (kms)

National Primary Roads 3,398 34% National Secondary Roads 2,773 34% Provincial Primary Roads 5,364 20% Provincial Secondary Roads 9,561 20% Rural Feeder Roads 17,000 20% Urban Roads 2,000 20% Total 40,096

Although detailed information is not readily available it is apparent that the majority of the country’s road network is generally in poor condition.

Capital Projects

Since the Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) carried out by the ADB and World Bank in 2002 a programme of donor funded road rehabilitation works has taken shape and can be summarised as follows:

Road Infrastructure


v

Table 2 Summary of Donor Programme

Year Kms USD 2003-04 693 183,969,603 2004-05 1473 453,665,119 2005-06 1263 342,299,032 2006-07 495 156,010,688 2007-08 442 142,010,688 2008 + 383 113,021,376 Total 4749 1,390,976,506

The donor programme will rehabilitate some 4,750km of mostly national roads, at an average cost of USD293,000/km. The USD1.4bn of donor funded works includes some USD703m of grant funds and USD528m of loan projects, with the funding of the balance being currently unclear.

Provided the donor projects are actually implemented as currently indicated, and provided that all the roads are properly maintained thereafter, the full national network (national primary and national secondary roads) will be brought up to fair condition or better under the donor programme.

An estimate was made of the cost to rehabilitate the Provincial, Urban and Rural Feeder road components of the road network. Using average costs per kilometre and estimates of the amount of road in poor condition, the following table was derived.

Table 3 Rehabilitation Needs

Classification Total Length

Percent in Poor

Condition

Average cost

(USD/km) Budget

National Roads 6,171 66% 293,000 (Appendix 1)

1,400,000,000

Provincial Roads 14,925 80% 100,000 1,194,000,000 Rural Feeder Roads

17,000 80% 10,000 136,000,000

Urban Roads 2,000 80% 30,000 48,000,000 Total 40,096 2,778,000,000

The data in the above table indicates a total budget requirement of some USD2.8billion to rehabilitate the entire Afghanistan road network. Of this some USD1.4billion is understood to have been committed by donors and a small amount (USD157m) is considered as being funded from government sources over the next four years. The current shortfall for capital projects (road rehabilitation) is therefore approximately USD1.3billion

Road Maintenance

A road is a physical asset and like all physical assets will deteriorate over time and with use. Maintenance work will be necessary to restore the road due to:

• Road deterioration due to age, weathering and natural events, and

Road Infrastructure


vi

• Road deterioration (i.e. damage) due to traffic activity, which is mainly heavy vehicle wheel loads.

It has been well established that failure to adequately maintain roads incurs far greater long term costs for eventual rehabilitation than can be saved by omitting the maintenance. Furthermore, each dollar saved in maintenance tends to increase vehicle operating costs by two to three times the amount saved. Rather than saving money, cutting back on road maintenance increases the cost of road transport and raises the net cost to the economy as a whole. This importance of road maintainance may be summed up in the truism:

You pay for good roads whether you have them or not!

This is an important issue for Afghanistan given that a large part of the primary road network is about to be rehabilitated. To retain the value of the road investments now being made (which consist of both donor grant funds and loans which must eventually be repaid) funds must be allocated and management arrangements instituted for long term maintenance of the road network.

An indicative programme has been put forward of routine maintenance (minor activities required one or more times per year on any road section eg. Pothole repairs) and periodic maintenance (more substantial but less frequent activities eg. Pavement overlays) for the Afghanistan road network. Road maintenance in this country must also take account of the need for snow removal in the winter time and make provisions for emergency works (eg. Clearance of landslides) that can not be predicted in advance.

A general description of a maintenance strategy for non urban roads is as follows:

• for Bituminous Surfaced Roads - Pothole repair if > 1 pothole (>300mm dia) / km - Edge break repair if > 50m2/km (both sides of road) - Single Seal if > 10% damage or 10% ravelling or texture depth <

0.3mm - AC overlay if AADT > 1000 and IRI > 6 apply 50 mm, or mill 50

mm and replace with 100 mm where damage > 40% and AADT > 1000

• for Gravel Roads - Grade road every 6 months if AADT<100 - Grade road every 4 months if AADT 100-200 - Grade road every 2 months if AADT>200 - Regravel with 250 mm of compacted material if surface thickness is

< 75 mm. • for all Earth Roads

- Grade road every 4 to 6 months As a general guide the above actions will maintain the rural road network in a fair to good trafficable condition. Other miscellaneous routine maintenance activities (drainage repairs, bridge repairs, vegetation clearance, sign repairs etc) are also required on an ongoing basis.

Road Infrastructure


vii

Maintenance Budget

The funds required to sustainably maintain Afghanistan’s rehabilitated road network have been estimated at approximately USD 117m pa, which is divided as shown in the following table.

Table 4 Road Maintenance Costs

Annual Cost of Maintaining the Afghanistan Road Network (After Rehabilitation of Roads Currently in Poor Condition)

Road Classification

Length (km) AADT

Routine Maintenance

(USD millions)

Periodic Maintenance

(USD millions)

Total

National Roads Paved 3,300 1,000 10,977,865 12,323,140 23,301,004 Gravel 2,671 300 2,687,126 8,629,125 11,316,251 Earth 200 50 187,384 0 187,384 Sub Total 6,171 13,852,374 20,952,264 34,804,639 Provincial Roads Paved 200 300 551,427 339,743 891,170 Gravel 10,994 300 11,060,125 35,517,199 46,577,324 Earth 3,731 50 3,495,874 0 3,495,874 Sub Total 14,925 15,107,426 35,856,942 50,964,368 Rural Feeder Roads Paved 0 - 0 0 0 Gravel 2,550 50 2,537,370 6,045,029 8,582,399 Earth 14,450 50 13,538,460 0 13,538,460 Sub Total 17,000 16,075,829 6,045,029 22,120,858 Urban Roads Paved 300 1,000 997,988 509,614 1,507,602 Gravel 1,700 300 1,710,264 5,492,142 7,202,406 Earth 0 - 0 0 0 Sub Total 2,000 2,708,252 6,001,757 8,710,008 Totals 40,096 47,743,881 68,855,992 116,599,873

Total Annual Maintenance Cost (Routine + Periodic + Winter +

Emergency)

= USD 116,599,873 pa The average cost of maintaining each road surface type is therefore as shown below:

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viii

Table 5 Average Maintenance Costs

Surface Type Total kms

Average Cost USD

Difference USD

Paved 3,800 6,763/km-yr 2,650/km-yr Gravel 17,915 4,113/km-yr 3,176/km-yr Earth 18,381 937/km-yr Whole Network Average 40,096 2,908/km-yr

Rehabilitation and Maintenance Programme

Estimates have been made of the annual funding required to rehabilitate and maintain the road network. Due to the long period of neglect and the resultant deteriorated condition of the road network, it will take several years to fully rehabilitate the roads of Afghanistan. Only after the roads that are in a poor condition have been rehabilitated to a “fair” or “good” condition can they be maintained in that state by a well planned and optimised maintenance programme.

The cost estimates are based on the following assumptions:

• The donor programme will be implemented generally as set out in Appendix 1 of the consultation paper. This will improve the full National road network (6,171km) up to at least fair or good condition by 2007.

• Although currently under-funded, it is assumed that money will be found to rehabilitate the Provincial road network so that all of it (14,925km) will be in fair condition or better by 2011.

• Similarly the feeder and urban roads will be progressively rehabilitated until by 2013 they are all in fair condition or better.

The budget for a programme to rehabilitate and maintain the road network is shown in the figure below and the subsequent table.

Figure 1 Total Annual Cost of Afghanistan Road Network (Rehab. + Maint.)

0.0

100.0

200.0

300.0

400.0

500.0

600.0

700.0

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-9

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

Year

US

D m

illio

ns

Subtotal -National

Subtotal -Provincial

Subtotal -RuralFeederRoadsSubtotal -UrbanRoads

Total - AllRoads

Road Infrastructure


ix

Table 6 Summary of Road Budget


2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

National Maintenance 23.8 30.9 33.1 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 National Rehabilitation 184.0 453.7 342.3 156.0 142.0 113.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Subtotal – National Roads 207.8 484.5 375.4 190.8 176.8 147.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 Provincial Maintenance 10.2 12.7 15.3 20.4 25.5 35.7 45.9 51.0 51.0 51.0 Provincial Rehabilitation 74.6 74.6 149.3 149.3 298.5 298.5 149.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 Subtotal - Provincial 84.8 87.4 164.5 169.6 324.0 334.2 195.1 51.0 51.0 51.0 Rural Feeder Roads

Maintenance 4.4 6.6 8.8 11.1 13.3 15.5 17.7 19.9 21.0 22.1

Rural Feeder Roads Rehabilitation 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 8.5 8.5 0.0

Subtotal - Rural Feeder Roads 21.4 23.6 25.8 28.1 30.3 32.5 34.7 28.4 29.5 22.1 Urban Roads Maintenance 1.7 2.6 3.5 4.4 5.2 6.1 7.0 7.8 8.3 8.7 Urban Roads Rehabilitation 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 3.0 3.0 0.0 Subtotal - Urban Roads 7.7 8.6 9.5 10.4 11.2 12.1 13.0 10.8 11.3 8.7 Total - All Roads

321.8 604.2 575.2 398.9 542.3 526.6 277.6 125.0 126.6 116.6

Road Infrastructure Operational Budgets and Financing

x

Financing

By combining available data on anticipated donor and government funding with the total road budget required, the likely budget shortfall over the next five years can be estimated as shown in the following table.

Table 7 Overall Road Budget Financing (USD millions)

Donor Government Shortfall Total -

All Roads

2003-04 184.0 24.0 113.8 321.8 2004-05 453.7 66.0 84.5 604.2 2005-06 342.3 63.1 169.8 575.2 2006-07 156.0 69.4 173.4 398.9 2007-08 142.0 76.4 323.9 542.3

The donor contributions (grants and loan funds) are only intended as a temporary measure to help the country back on its feet. Further sustainable sources of funds will be required to complete rehabilitation of the roads, for road maintenance, and to a lesser extent for new construction over the longer term. Despite the current donor contributions there will be a large shortfall to be financed by the government directly or from other sources. The issue of road funding sources and mechanisms in Afghanistan has been addressed in detail in the separate TSR consultation paper “2.3 Funding” which forms another part of this Road Infrastructure Report. Recommendations regarding institutional arrangements for administration of the different levels of the road network are also contained therein.

Conclusion

This paper has reviewed and presented preliminary work programmes and developed budget estimates to first rehabilitate and then maintain the Afghanistan road network. The Budget estimates have been separated into four main network components (ie. National, Provincial, Rural Feeder Roads and Urban Roads) . The budget has also been separated into estimates for rehabilitating existing roads (which includes bridges) to restore them to fair condition or better and the costs of optimum maintenance works that will sustain each network component at the required condition into the future.

Due to the lack of data about road condition, vehicle fleets and tender prices in Afghanistan, many assumptions and approximations have been adopted in preparing this report. For this reason the costs in this paper can only be considered as “ball park” estimates and should be reviewed and refined as the road sector develops. Two of the top priorities should be to review and update the current functional classification system for roads and to carry out a thorough condition survey of all roads and bridges, starting with the national roads but extending to all levels of the road hierachy. These will provide the base data for road network managers to accurately assess the extent of road rehabilitation and maintainance required.

A further, and most critical, priority is to put in place adequately resourced arrangements to sustainably maintain the road infrastructure and thus preserve the benefits of the current investments in road rehabilitation. Without proper maintenance the roads will inevitably deteriorate resulting in huge costs to road users and the need for further major rehabilitation efforts within less than 10 years.


1


1. Terms of Reference

The Terms of Reference for the Transport Sector review require the consultant to prepare a 5 year budget for road maintenance and the operations of the institutions in the road sector as well as a financing plan, identifying separately local and expected foreign financing. This document identifies the proposed capital works programme and sets out an indicative programme of road maintenance activities and financing needs for the next five years. Unless otherwise noted the costs, budgets and exchange rates used in this document are current as at 31 May 2003.

2. Outline

Afghanistan is now in a phase of intensive post conflict reconstruction of major infrastructure. There is a large programme of donor funded road rehabilitation and reconstruction projects either in progress or under consideration. A few projects are currently underway and several others are about to start. The definition of the individual construction projects that make up the donor programme is somewhat fluid. Changes occur as the donors variously extend, withdraw, accelerate, defer or reallocate previously pledged financial support for specific road sections.

Donor funded projects are addressing the most critical road deficiencies which are, for the most part, on the national road network. Despite uncertainties in the status of some individual projects the overall shape of the donor programme is now fairly clear. It is focussed on restoring the complete Kabul – Herat - Kabul ring road, several routes to international borders and selected other route sections.

As most of the existing network is in very poor condition, assessment of maintenance needs has focussed on the funding required to sustainably maintain those roads that are in a maintainable (“good” or “fair”) condition. This means that apart from emergency works maintenance resources will generally not be applied to roads that are currently in poor condition until after they have been rehabilitated to a reasonable and maintainable standard.

In developing the proposed budget for investment in and maintenance of the road network the following steps were undertaken:

1. Review programme of road investment projects for the next 5 years and determine budget required

2. Estimate budget required to meet the needs for sustainable maintenance of the fully rehabilitated (ie. future) road network

3. Estimate the length of road that will be in fair or good condition and thus must be maintained in the intermediate years (ie. progressively rehabilitated network)

4. Estimate maintenance budget required in the intermediate years.


2

3. The Road Network

The Afghanistan road network is comprised of the following approximate lengths of road:

Table 1 Road Classification and Condition

Road Classification Total Length (kms) Percent in “Good” or

“Fair” Condition (kms)

National Primary Roads 3,398 34% National Secondary Roads 2,773 34% Provincial Primary Roads 5,364 20% Provincial Secondary Roads 9,561 20% Rural Feeder Roads 17,000 20% Urban Roads 2,000 20% Total 40,096

The length and condition data in the table is adapted from the “Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA – ADB 2002) and from data provided by MoPW. It has been augmented by estimates by the consultant. A road inventory database for Afghanistan (ARCS 1994) was developed but the consultant has not been able to obtain a copy. The inventory database is cited as the original source of the data reported by the ADB.

It should be noted that the CNA states that 54% of the National network (ie National Primary plus National Secondary) is in poor condition, which implies that 46% is in good or fair condition. In the consultant’s opinion, and based on some 1,500km of road travel in Afghanistan, this would overstate the current condition of the national network. Instead of 46%, a figure of 34% has been assumed as the proportion of the National road network that is in fair or good condition.

As also noted elsewhere in the TSR documents, the road network of Afghanistan is in desperate condition. For purposes of road maintenance budgeting it is proposed that, at a minimum, every effort should be made to ensure that roads that are currently in good or fair condition should at least receive sufficient maintenance so that they do not deteriorate further. Roads that are already in poor condition generally require major rehabilitation, rather than maintenance treatment.

Many road bridges in Afghanistan have been destroyed or seriously damaged as result of conflict and natural events (eg. Floods and landslides) and chronic lack of maintenance over many years. The bridges which are still trafficable are often suffering various degrees of non structural damage and require major maintenance and rehabilitation treatments to restore them to reasonable levels of service and service-life. There is currently no comprehensive inventory or condition database of the road bridges in Afghanistan so their numbers have not been estimated. However, it is understood that the major donor funded road rehabilitation projects will generally include restoration or replacement of most river crossings on their subject road sections.

4. Topography and Climate

Afghanistan’s total land area is approximately 650,000km2. Most of the land (about 63%) can be classified as mountainous using formal criteria based on slope and elevation (UNEP 2003). Around 27% of the land area lies above 2,500m altitude.


3

The rugged Hindu Kush range covers some 456,000 km2 of the central core of the country and rises to about 5,100m. Peaks up to 7,000m occur in the Wakhan Corridor in the extreme northeast of the country.

In the southwest (around Helmand), and to a lesser extent to the north (between the foothills of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya River) are extensive areas of flat land. These include significant areas of sand desert, particularly in the southwest.

The climate is continental in nature with cold winters and hot summers. Most of the country is arid or semi arid. Annual precipitation varies from around 1,200mm in some parts of the northeast to less than 100mm in the southwest. Precipitation over most of the country lies in the lower half of this range. Kabul receives less than 400mm pa. Winter temperatures can be very low, with many weeks below -15°C being not uncommon in the winter months.

These climatic and topographic factors have a significant influence on the construction and maintenance of roads in Afghanistan. The large proportion of mountainous terrain means that roads in those areas are often built very narrow and with tortuous alignments to minimise costs in the steep country. River crossings tend to require bridges because the water courses are either deeply incised or have wide and highly mobile gravel/boulder river beds which are difficult to negotiate by vehicle even when not in flood. The need for emergency repairs, such as for land slides and flood damage, is more frequent in mountainous terrain. The high altitude of much of the country means that winter maintenance requires substantial effort to keep roads clear of snow and ice and open to traffic as much as practicable.

5. Road Standards

Assessment of financing and budget requirements for operating and maintaining the road network in Afghanistan needs to consider the design and maintenance standards applied to the various road categories. In general, construction standards for the new roads and major rehabilitation projects are currently being adopted on an ad hoc basis, but with reference to international practice, by the designers of the various donor funded projects. In time the MPW will need to update and publish its own road design standards (eg. Geometric design, road drainage and construction quality standards) for various categories of new and reconstructed roads and bridges in the country.

Performance standards for maintenance of existing and reconstructed roads in Afghanistan is also an important issue. At present there is very little, and often no, regular maintenance undertaken on most rural roads in the country. What little maintenance that does occur often consists of small scale village level activities to address urgent local problems such as washouts, landslides and blocked drains. UNOPS and NGOs are undertaking selected labour intensive road works in rural areas. These are all small scale and often emergency works. They are addressing an urgent need and are certainly beneficial both to road users and to the labourers employed. However the NGO programmes do not, and are not intended to, constitute a national programme of managed road maintenance. That is the role of the road controlling authority, which in most cases, at least for the primary and secondary road network, is the Ministry of Public Works. Typical maintenance activities and indicative performance standards are set out later in this section.


4

6. Road and Bridge Capital Works

The Afghanistan National Development Framework (IAA 2002) states that “The goal of the programme for transport is to have an efficient, affordable transport system enabling people, commodities and ideas to move and connect”. This goal guides the development of programmes to restore and maintain the road network of Afghanistan.

In developed countries investment in road and bridge works usually comprises a mix of construction of new road links, capacity expansion on existing roads (eg. Widening from 2 lanes to 4 lanes) and replacement of old infrastructure that can no longer be economically maintained or is reaching the end of its service life. While Afghanistan remains in a situation of post-conflict recovery road investments in the near term must focus firstly on rehabilitation of its war damaged and neglected road infrastructure. As described elsewhere the country has (or at least, had) quite an extensive road network. Although the road density of 0.03km of road per square kilometre and 0.88km per thousand people (ADB 2002) is very low in comparison with most developing countries the network touches all the major population centres and reaches into the remote areas. Rehabilitation of existing roads, particularly the primary national network, must have first priority with construction of new roads being a secondary consideration. Expansion of the network, in terms of route length or traffic capacity, should not consume a significant proportion of available funds until substantial progress has been made rehabilitating existing roads and bridges.

At present, the need for road and bridge investments is being addressed by both the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) directly and by numerous donors and NGOs active in the road sector. However the current lack of funds available to the GoA means that almost all current road projects in Afghanistan are funded from non-government sources, principally multilateral agencies (World Bank, ADB, EU), neighbouring and regional countries (eg. Pakistan, Iran, India, Saudi Arabia) and elsewhere (eg. USA, Italy, Sweden). This situation will change only slowly over the next few years. The issue of road funding sources is addressed further in a separate report under the Transport Sector Review.

7. Capital Works - Donor Funded Projects

In March 2002 ADB and the World Bank jointly undertook a Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA - ADB 2002) of the transport sector in Afghanistan. The CNA recommended a programme of road rehabilitation works that focussed on:

• Restoring key sections of the primary network

• Removing bottlenecks such as damaged bridges and the Salang Tunnel

• Improving road links to neighbouring countries

• Improving key secondary and tertiary roads to connect district centres with the primary network, using a mainly labour based approach

The works recommended in the CNA were to initially (ie. within 2.5 years) restore most of the primary ring road, (ie. Apart from the Herat – Shiberghan section), key links to Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and to undertake emergency repairs and winter maintainance on a stopgap basis until the larger rehabilitation projects get underway. The second priority, within 5 years, is to complete the ring road and the east-west route (Herat-Chaghcharan-Kabul) and restore the secondary and tertiary network to provide access to all major population centres


5

and rural communities. This consultant concurs with the approach set out in the CNA and supports the prioritisation rationale adopted for the works.

Since the CNA was published in August 2002 donors have pledged funds to undertake various projects. Appendix 1 lists currently available information about the proposed donor funded road works programme. The data has been sourced from the government budget (AACA, 12 March 2003), other information held by AACA and discussion with individual donor agencies. Where specific details could not be obtained from the donors, some data in the table has been estimated or interpolated. Although adjustments have been applied in the amount and timing of expenditure on some projects the table is considered to give an overall picture of where and when donor funds are expected to be invested in the road network of Afghanistan over the next few years. Asummary of the donor programme is given in the following table.

Table 2 Summary of Donor Programme

Year Kms USD 2003-04 693 183,969,603 2004-05 1473 453,665,119 2005-06 1263 342,299,032 2006-07 495 156,010,688 2007-08 442 142,010,688 2008 + 383 113,021,376 Total 4749 1,390,976,506

The overall donor programme of about USD 1.4 billion will rehabilitate approximately 4,700km of the road network. This equates to an overall average of USD293,000/km of road rehabilitated. In practice the standard to which the routes are rehabilitated will vary between projects. In the case of Kabul-Kandahar (500km) the road will be restored to a two lane paved highway with a speed environment of at least 100km/hr for an average cost of USD417,000/km. However for Taloqan-Faizabad (170km) the rehabilitation, which will cost an average of USD136,000/km, is expected to repair only the most critically damaged or at-risk road sections, pave selected sections through villages and undertake maintenance backlog work on as much as possible of the rest of the route. Much work will remain to be done in later years to upgrade the road to a secure, fully paved standard with all water courses bridged.

The budgeted amount of USD 1.4 billion is divided between the different road classifications as follows:

Table 3 Donor Programme by Road Classification

Year Kms USD Primary 3,429 986,179,522 Secondary 1,269 358,554,159 Other 52 16,242,825 Total 4,750 1,360,976,506

8. Capital Works – Non Donor Funded Projects

Although the donor funded road works outlined above will address the highest priority (mainly national) road links they cover only 4,750km road length in total, of which 4,698km is on the national network (national primary and national secondary roads). Of the 6,171km total length of national roads approximately 34% (ie. 2,098km) are


6

judged to be already in good or fair condition. As this is more than the amount of national road omitted from the current donor projects (6,171km, minus 4,698km donor-funded national road projects, equals 1,472km), it can be assumed that all of the national road network (national primary and national secondary roads) will be rehabilitated with donor funds if and when the expected programme is fully implemented.

The above length figures imply that some donor projects will ostensibly be “rehabilitating” road sections that are already in good or fair condition. This is not an inconsistency and just reflects the fact that there are short lengths of good road located within larger routes being rehabilitated by donors. Two examples are the first 40km from Kabul on the Kanadahar Road and the Doshi to Pul-e-Khomri section (47km) of the Kabul-Shirkhan Road. Both road sections are in quite good condition and need little more than routine maintenance work. Although they have been included in the list of donor projects in Appendix 1, they will be treated appropriately when the projects are implemented.

Although the national roads are now being addressed by donors, rehabilitation required on the provincial roads (14,925km total length), feeder roads (about 17,000km) and urban roads (estimated at 2,000km) must be funded either from government sources or by seeking additional donor funds.

The MoPW and AACA have prepared lists of these government funded or unfunded second priority rehabilitation projects. A list from ACCA, based on the Public Investment Programme (March 2003) is included in Appendix 2. A list from MoPW of unfunded project requirements is shown in Appendix 3. The AACA list includes donor projects, government funded works and works that are currently unfunded. To reduce the overlap with Appendix 1, the donor funded projects have been flagged and totaled separately at the bottom of the table. However the totals in Appendix 2 are not consistent with the totals for donor funded projects in Appendix 1. The latter was modified by the consultant after discussion and clarification with most of the major donors.

Looking at the right hand side (Funded Component) of the table in Appendix 2, and separating out the line items known to be in proposed donor projects, the following table indicates the anticipated level of works that ACCA has designated as being “funded” over the next 4 years.

Table 4 Funded Works (See Appendix 2)

Year Total

“Funded” Works

Donor Projects

Non-Donor (Gov)

2003 13.35 9.20 4.15 2004 205.10 181.10 24.00 2005 279.60 213.60 66.00 2006 172.80 109.70 63.10

Total 670.85 513.60 157.25

It is understood that works referred to as “non-donor” in Table 3 and Appendix 2 are intended to be funded from government sources.

Because of the significant inconsistencies between the data in Appendices 1, 2 and 3 it is difficult to present a clear picture of the funding needs for rehabilition of the provincial, feeder and urban components of the road network. A simple method is to


7

make an estimate using average costs per km to rehabilitate the length of road in each classification that is in poor condition. This is shown in the following table.

Table 5 Rehabilitaion Needs

Classification Total Length

Percent in Poor

Condition

Average cost

(USD/km) Budget

National Roads 6,171 66% (Appendix 1) 1,400,000,000 Provincial Roads 14,925 80% 100,000 1,194,000,000 Rural Feeder Roads

17,000 80% 10,000 136,000,000

Urban Roads 2,000 80% 30,000 48,000,000 Total 40,096 2,778,000,000

The data in Table 4 indicates a total budget requirement of some USD2.8billion to rehabilitate the entire Afghanistan road network. Of this some USD1.4billion appears to have been committed by donors and a small amount is (USD157m) is considered as being funded from government sources over the next four years. The current shortfall is therefore approximately USD1.3billion.

9. Investment Programme

It will take several years of rehabilitation works before all the roads have been rehabilitated. Estimates have been made of the annual budget required for road network rehabilitation. This is based on the following assumptions:

• The donor programme will be implemented generally as set out in Appendix 1 above. This will improve the full National road network (6,171km) up to at least fair or good condition by 2007.

• Although currently under-funded, it is assumed that money will be found to rehabilitate the Provinvial road network so that all of it (14,925km) will be in fair condition or better by 2011.


Base on these assumptions, the road length to be rehabilitated in each year, together with the investment budget has been estimated for years up to 2013. These are shown in Tables 6 and 7 below.

Road Infrastructure


8

Table 6 Estimated Road Length Rehabilitated Each Year

Road Classification

Total Length (kms)

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-9 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13

National 6171 693 1,436 1,249 387 309 - - - - - - Provincial 14,925 - 746 746 1,493 1,493 2,985 2,985 1,493 - - - Rural Feeder Roads 17,000 - 1,700 1,700 1,700 1,700 1,700 1,700 1,700 850 850 - Urban Roads 2,000 - 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 100 100 -

Table 7 Annual Investment Budget for Road Rehabilitation 2002-2013 (USD Millions)

Road Classification

Total Length (kms)

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-9 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13

National 6,171 0.0 184.0 453.7 342.3 156.0 142.0 113.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Provincial 14,925 0.0 74.6 74.6 149.3 149.3 298.5 298.5 149.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 Rural Feeder Roads 17,000 0.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 8.5 8.5 0.0

Urban Roads 2,000 0.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 3.0 3.0 0.0

Road Infrastructure


9

The investment programme is shown as a chart below.

Figure 1 Annual Investment in Road Rehabilitation

Annual Investment in Road Rehabilitation

-

50,000,000

100,000,000

150,000,000

200,000,000

250,000,000

300,000,000

350,000,000

400,000,000

450,000,000

500,000,000

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-9

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

Year

US

D

National

Provincial

RuralFeederRoads

UrbanRoads

10. Road Maintenance

A road is a physical asset and like all physical assets will deteriorate over time and with use. Maintenance work will be necessary to restore the road to a satisfactory state. This statement embodies the following issues:

• Road deterioration due to age, weathering and natural events (ie. does not depend on traffic volumes)

• Road deterioration (i.e. damage) due to traffic activity – comprising damage caused by different vehicle types.

A newly constructed road or bridge starts to deteriorate from the day it is built. The accumulation of incrementally minor weather and traffic damage will inevitably eventually destroy the asset if it is not actively maintained. It is therefore crucial that an adequate programme of road and bridge maintenance should have first call on the scarce government resources available for the road sector in Afghanistan.

It is often a common misconception among both road users and even among road sector officials in many countries that new roads need no maintenance, or at least not for several years after their construction or reconstruction. This is not correct. Minor maintenance works (eg. Drain cleaning and vegetation clearance) may be needed within only a few weeks after the contractor has left the site. In addition to normal wear and tear, road damage and even potholes can also arise quite quickly especially following unusual weather or road accidents.

Major road construction contracts usually include provision for a “maintenance” or “defects liability” period (typically 12 months) during which the contractor must repair any defects in his work. However such provisions usually only make the

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contractor liable for defects in his own workmanship and not for routine maintenance items such as drain cleaning. Arrangements for planned maintenance should be in place from the day the construction contractor leaves the site, and are the responsibility of the road’s owner or controlling authority.

Another common fallacy is that when funds are scarce budgets for maintenance can be cut relatively painlessly. One study of roads in Africa (Heggie 1995) found that “When a road is not maintained, and is allowed to deteriorate from good to poor condition, each dollar saved on road maintenance increases the vehicle operating costs by US$2 to US$3. Far from saving money, cutting back on road maintenance increases the costs of road transport and raises the net cost to the economy as a whole.”

Poor road maintenance also raises the long term cost of maintaining the road network. Heggie noted that the average cost of maintaining a paved road in Africa for 15 years was about US$60,000/km (1995). However, if the road was not maintained but allowed to deteriorate it would then cost some US$200,000/km to rehabilitate it. The scenario is similar for gravel roads. Over a 10 year period a gravel road may cost US$10,000 to US$20,000/km (1995 costs) for a sustainable maintenance regimen, depending on traffic, climate and other factors. However leaving it without maintenance for 10 years would incur a cost of US$40,000/km (1995) to rehabilitate the road at the end of that period. In NPV terms and discounted at 12%pa, Heggie’s study found that relying on rehabilitation, rather than sustainable maintenance practices, was more expensive by 35% for paved roads and by between 14% and 128% for gravel roads over the long term. This level of unnecessary expenditure is something that poorer countries, especially those in such dire straits as Afghanistan, must strenuously strive to avoid.

This importance of road maintainance may be summed up in the truism:

You pay for good roads whether you have them or not!

A caveat could perhaps also be added – “But you pay less if you do have them!” Saving money by not undertaking a properly planned and optimised road maintenance programme is simply false economy. It will always end up costing road users, tax payers and donors more over the long term.

This is an important issue for Afghanistan given that a large part of the primary road network is about to be rehabilitated. To retain the value of the road investments now being made (which consist of both donor grant funds and loans which must eventually be repaid by the Government of Afghanistan) funds must be allocated and management arrangements instituted for long term maintenance of the road network.

11. Maintenance Activities

Road maintenance may be divided into categories depending on the type of maintenance activity and frequency with which it is carried out. Three categories commonly used are routine maintenance, periodic maintenance and emergency works. Winter maintenance work may be considered as a sub-category of routine maintenance.

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12. Routine Maintenance

Routine maintenance, for maintenance management purposes, comprises of the work undertaken, generally on a responsive basis, or with a relatively short planning horizon throughout the year. It consists of minor and usually simple road maintenance activities, typically undertaken one or more times each year on any given road section. It can also include preventative maintenance.

Routine maintenance typically includes:

• Cleaning and removal of silt and debris from roads, road side drains, offshoot drains, culverts, fords, bridges and associated water ways;

• Repairing erosion damage including filling scours in waterways, drains, embankments and cuttings;

• Repairing all minor structural damage to pavements such as potholes, bitumen edge breaks and cracks;

• Spot re-gravelling of gravel roads and gravel shoulders to repair potholes and other surface defects;

• Repairing all minor structural damage to culverts, fords, retaining walls, bridges and other minor and major structures including;

• On bridges, cleaning the deck, scuppers, joints, replacement of deck planks, etc;

• Repair of scour protection works such as gabions and groynes;

• Clean up after small rock and earth slides – particularly where material is on the road or in drains;

• Cleaning and repairing damage to, including replacement of, road signs guard rails, parapet rails and similar features;

• Repainting road lines and markings as necessary to maintain their visibility;

• Cutting back or trimming all road side vegetation before it affects sight distance or road width;

• Bridge and ford maintenance such as minor repairs to expansion joints, deck surfaces, river training works and protective painting of steel work on guard rails, bridge structures, parapet rails and similar features;

• Minor clean up and related work required following a crash, storm, flood or other event;

• Clearance of broken down vehicles – This should properly be the responsibility of the vehicle owner, rather than the road controlling authority. However, in Afghanistan vehicle owners can often not be relied upon to promptly remove immobilised vehicles that are blocking a roadway. This can be a serious problem where trucks break down and completely block very narrow road sections such as mountain passes and tunnels, particularly in winter time. In Afghanistan road controlling authorities (mainly MPW) should have some immediate response capability to clear break downs from critical locations.

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The repair of major damage is usually treated as a distinct item that is investigated and planned under a separate rehabilitation project or projects.

Routine maintenance is normally undertaken in line with intervention standards that specify when maintenance work should be undertaken. For example, “clean a culvert barrel when the waterway is blocked or silted more than 15% of the cross-sectional area”.

For management purposes, routine maintenance may be subdivided into responsive and planned routine maintenance. Most items can be planned (even if on a short time horizon) if regular inspections are undertaken to discover the maintenance requirement before it becomes absolutely necessary to undertake response maintenance. For example, bituminous edge breaks can be observed and repaired before they become dangerous and thus the repair work can be planned, scheduled and undertaken accordingly. The alternative is waiting until the edge breaks become dangerous and in need of rapid response work. For good management, the responsive maintenance work should be minimized by the well resourced and managed application of planned maintenance.

13. Winter Maintenance

Winter maintenance is a special case of routine maintenance and comprises the activities required to keep roads and bridges open and serviceable when subject to snow falls and freezing conditions in the winter months. Winter maintenance includes:

• Snow removal by manual labour, snow ploughing and/or grading snow off the traffic lanes

• Clearing snow falls and avalanches

• De-icing of the road pavement and bridge decks by spreading salt or grit

Winter maintenance is necessarily reactive, it is not needed until freezing conditions or snowfall actually occurs. However it must also be planned ahead of time. Although specific snow falls can not be anticipated with accuracy, except perhaps a few hours in advance and then only with good meteorological data, historical trends of climatic conditions and winter maintenance trends provide a good overall basis to allocate funds and resources ahead of each winter season.

14. Periodic Maintenance

Periodic maintenance, for maintenance management purposes, comprises maintenance work undertaken on a scheduled or cyclic basis. It is usually planned on a year-by-year basis and sometime several years in advance. The activities are carried out at intervals of greater than 1 year on any given road section.

On bituminous surfaced road, periodic maintenance is the application of pavement wide treatments designed to preserve the bitumen surface (but not to strengthen the pavement) and includes:

• Deterioration prevention treatments such as fog seals, rejuvenation treatments and slurry seals;

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• Bitumen surface dressing applications (single or double coat), with or without surface shape correction;

• Asphalt overlays (single or double layers with or without regulation course) designed to repair and/or improve the surface shape that do not add significantly to the structural strength of the pavement (that is, usually less that about 100 mm thick);

• Recycling the base and/or surface layers with a new bitumen surface;

• Stabilization of base and surface layers with a new bitumen surface;

• Reconstruction of a bituminous pavement that results in a change in the pavement strength such as removal of the existing surface, addition of new base and/or sub-base material and a new bitumen surface (asphalt or surface dressing);

• Grading (or blading) gravel shoulders to bituminous surfaced roads;

• Spot resurfacing or re-gravelling gravel shoulders to bituminous surfaced roads; and

• Resurfacing to replace lost shoulder gravel material.

On un-paved (ie. gravel) roads periodic maintenance is roadway wide treatments designed to preserve the gravel running surface and includes:

• Grading (blading) roads the roadway surface and side drains to restore smoothness and drainage flow;

• Spot resurfacing or re-gravelling; and

• Resurfacing (or “re sheeting”) to replace lost pavement surface material (earth or gravel as appropriate) designed to restore the pavement and running surface.

The strengthening, widening or other improvement to the pavement, carriageway or structures is, strictly speaking, not maintenance but improvement work. However from a management viewpoint, maintenance is often taken to include such work provided it is minor and included with other maintenance work. For example, when applying asphalt overlays, minor curve widening may be included in the maintenance activity.

15. Emergency Repairs

As indicated by the name this consists of unpredictable maintenance and repair activities to address emergency situations which close or seriously threaten a road and require urgent attention which is greater in scope than normal routine maintenance.

Emergency repairs are required after the roadway is damaged or a hazard is created by a disaster such as a flood, landslide, rockfall, high wind, vehicle crash or explosion. This work cannot be specifically identified or included in forward plans until the emergency occurs. However funds should be allocated annually as a contingency fund for emergency repairs so as to be available when required.

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Minor cleanup and making safe after a disaster and minor repair work is normally included in routine maintenance. When significant repairs are required they are normally identified, designed and undertaken as special items.

16. Maintenance Management

A maintenance programme must ensure that sufficient funds and resources are allocated for each maintenance category (Routine including Winter Maintenance, Periodic, Emergency) on a sustainable basis.

Some fundamental considerations should be kept in mind when planning road maintenance and development in Afghanistan.

a) Upgrading unsealed (gravel and earth) road sections to bitumen surfaces and improving existing bitumen surfaced and unsealed roads should only be carried out where economically warranted. Given the very poor state of the Afghanistan road network priority must be given to restoring and rehabilitating the many kilometres of previously paved roads to an acceptable condition before consideration can be given to allocating resources to improve roads significantly beyond the best condition they have been in the past.

b) The target is to maintain the road network in what may be classed as a "fair condition". That is a condition where some road sections may have significant defects but the normal routine and periodic maintenance is sufficient to keep the road and related items (drains, culverts, bridges, signs, etc.) in a safe and trafficable condition. Fair condition should be the minimum condition of any section of the road network. There should be none, or only a very small proportion, of the network in a poor condition, where there are extensive defects and where the normal routine and periodic maintenance is inadequate to keep the road and related items in a safe and motorable state and it requires reconstruction and/or restoration of damage to bring it to a fair condition. Today more than half of Afghanistan’s identified road network is in a “poor” condition and a significant part is barely trafficable even to four wheel drive vehicles.

c) As a priority task, undertake, so called, backlog work to improve the safety and bring the network to a condition where normal ongoing routine and periodic maintenance should be capable of maintaining the network at a suitable level of service. For most of the primary road network currently planned donor funded projects are addressing the maintenance backlog in Afghanistan.

d) After the backlog work, the first call on available money should be for routine maintenance of the road carriageway, drainage, bridges and road reserve that preserves the asset and the current level of service the road was originally designed to provide. This only applies to road sections in fair condition or better, as those in poor condition cannot be reinstated with routine maintenance alone.

e) The next call on money should be for periodic maintenance activities on road sections and bridges in fair condition where routine maintenance activities are not the economically best way to preserve the road in a fair condition.

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f) The objectives for the maintenance program are to preserve the road asset and ensure continuing safety and reliability for road users in the economically best way.

g) If there are any surplus funds remaining after all the maintenance work is undertaken, and the level of service provided by the road network can be maintained in a "fair" condition (i.e., the road network is sustainable), the surplus funds can be used for improvement works. They can only be justified when undertaking the improvement work does not adversely affect the ability of the road controlling authority to maintain the current road network in a sustainable fair and safe condition for road users.

h) When considering improvement works, their effect on maintenance requirements should be taken into account. Frequently improvements reduce the maintenance requirements in the short term, but increase them in the longer term. However, this reduction in the short-term maintenance requirement does not necessarily compensate for the cost of the improvement work.

i) A policy of retaining a bitumen surface on all existing bitumen surfaced road sections should be pursued even though this could hinder the development of an optimal road network or conflict with the most economically sound road maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction program. A better economic solution could, at least in theory, result from allowing some bitumen-surfaced sections with low traffic volumes to revert to gravel. However, given the poor state of Afghanistan’s road network there are few if any road sections that have excessively high standards relative to their transport function and traffic volume.

17. Indicative Maintenance Management Strategy

It is beyond the scope of this study to investigate and recommend a detailed plan of maintenance for the Afghanistan road network. However, for the non urban roads, which make up the bulk of the Afghanistan network indicative maintenance activities and standards are suggested below for:

• Bituminous Surfaced Roads

• Earth Roads

• Gravel Roads

The general description of a strategy for rural roads is as follows:

• for Bituminous Surfaced Roads

- Pothole repair if > 1 pothole (>300mm dia) / km

- Edge break repair if > 50m2/km (both sides of road)

- Single Seal if > 10% damage or 10% ravelling or texture depth < 0.3mm

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- AC overlay if AADT > 1000 and IRI > 6 apply 50 mm, or mill 50 mm and replace with 100 mm where damage > 40% and AADT > 1000

• for Gravel Roads

- Grade road every 6 months if AADT<100

- Grade road every 4 months if AADT 100-200

- Grade road every 2 months if AADT>200

- Regravel with 250 mm of compacted material if surface thickness is < 75 mm.

• for all Earth Roads

- Grade road every 4 to 6 months

As a general guide the above actions will maintain the rural road network in a fair to good trafficable condition. Other miscellaneous routine maintenance activities (drainage repairs, bridge repairs, vegetation clearance, sign repairs etc) are also required on an ongoing basis.

18. Maintenance Budget

An indicative maintenance budget for the entire Afghanistan road network has been estimated and is shown in Appendix 3. The budget assumes that the roads have been restored to at least fair condition throughout and indicates the level of annual funding likely to be required to sustain the network indefinitely. The analysis follows the method outlined in Annexes 3 and 4 of Heggie (1995). The main steps are summarised as follows:

• Subdivide the road network into homogeneous categories based on road type and traffic volumes

• Estimate maintenance needs for each category using tables in Annex 4 of Heggie and adjusting to represent current Afghanistan conditions

• Sum the costs per km of maintaining the different road and traffic categories multiplied by the road length in each category to arrive at overall budget figure.

Due to the lack of base data about the road network and traffic in Afghanistan this analysis is necessarily very broad and contains several far reaching assumptions. These include:

• Assumed network conditions and road lengths, as shown in Table 1 above

• “Normal” truck composition (20% trucks)

• Fleet composition and loading categories assumed similar to typical data for Africa (Heggie 1995)

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• Unit rates for maintenance items in Afghanistan have been assumed equivalent to worldwide averages drawn from the World Bank ROCKS database (2000)

• ROCKS prices have been escalated at 2.5%pa for three years to approximate Afghanistan prices as at 1 June 2003

• Optimal maintenance costs taken from Heggie Annex 4, adjusted by a combined cost factor proportional to the ROCKS item costs plus escalation to 2003.

• Total maintenance costs have been apportioned between fixed (non vehicle-dependant) and variable (traffic and load dependant) components using typical ratios from Heggie (1995). This can be used to indicate what proportion should be deemed recoverable from road users so that heavy vehicles cover their variable costs.

The estimated funds required to sustainably maintain Afghanistan’s rehabilitated road network is approximately USD 117m pa, which is divided as shown in Table 3. Aditional details are shown in Appendix 3.

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Table 8 Maintenance Costs

Annual Cost of Maintaining the Afghanistan Road Network (After Rehabilitation)

Road Classification

Length (km) AADT

Routine Maintenance

(USD millions)

Periodic Maintenance

(USD millions)

Total

National Roads Paved 3,300 1,000 10,977,865 12,323,140 23,301,004 Gravel 2,671 300 2,687,126 8,629,125 11,316,251 Earth 200 50 187,384 0 187,384 Sub Total 6,171 13,852,374 20,952,264 34,804,639 Provincial Roads Paved 200 300 551,427 339,743 891,170 Gravel 10,994 300 11,060,125 35,517,199 46,577,324 Earth 3,731 50 3,495,874 0 3,495,874 Sub Total 14,925 15,107,426 35,856,942 50,964,368 Rural Feeder Roads Paved 0 - 0 0 0 Gravel 2,550 50 2,537,370 6,045,029 8,582,399 Earth 14,450 50 13,538,460 0 13,538,460 Sub Total 17,000 16,075,829 6,045,029 22,120,858 Urban Roads Paved 300 1,000 997,988 509,614 1,507,602 Gravel 1,700 300 1,710,264 5,492,142 7,202,406 Earth 0 - 0 0 0 Sub Total 2,000 2,708,252 6,001,757 8,710,008 Totals 40,096 47,743,881 68,855,992 116,599,873

Total Annual Maintenance Cost (Routine + Periodic + Winter +

Emergency)

= USD 116,599,873 pa

The average cost of maintaining each road surface type is therefore as shown in Table 4.

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Table 9 Average Maintenance Costs

Surface Type Total kms

Average Cost USD

Difference USD

Paved 3,800 6,763/km-yr 2,650/km-yr Gravel 17,915 4,113/km-yr 3,176/km-yr Earth 18,381 937/km-yr Whole Network Average 40,096 2,908/km-yr

It can be seen, based on the given assumptions, that improving earth roads to a gravel surface incurs an extra maintenance cost of USD3,200/km-year and from gravel to a paved surfaced costs a further USD2,650/km-yr. The above incremental costs are indicative only but provide approximate the maintenance cost increases attributable to road improvements. Road upgrading projects should only be undertaken on the basis of a life cycle analysis to confirm the economic benefits of the investment.

Note that the costs in Tables 3 and 4 assume that an optimum maintenance programme is being applied to roads that have been rehabilitated and are thus already in good or fair condition. They do not include any allowance for improving poor roads to a better condition.

19. Maintenance Programme

It will take several years of rehabilitation works before all the roads have been improved to the level at which an optimal programme of normal road maintenance (ie. Routine, periodical, winter plus emergency maintenance) can sustain them in a fair to good condition. Estimates have been made of the minimum budget required for road maintenance in the intermediate years while the network is being rehabilitated. This is based on the following assumptions:

• The donor programme will be implemented generally as set out in Section 7 above. This will improve the full National road network (6,171km) up to at least fair condition by 2007.

• Although currently under-funded, it is assumed that money will be found to rehabilitate the Provinvial road network so that it is all (14,925km) in fair condition or better by 2011.


Base on these assumptions, the percentage of road length to receive normal maintainance, and the maintenance budget required have been estimated for the intermediate years up to 2013. These are shown in Tables 5 and 6 below.

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Table 10 Percentage of Road Length in Good or Fair Condition 2002-2013

Percent in “Good” or “Fair” Condition

Road Classification Total Length

(kms) 2002-

03 2003-

04 2004-

05 2005-

06 2006-

07 2007-

08 2008-

09 2009-

10 2010-

11 2011-

12 2012-

13

National 6,171 34% 45% 68% 89% 95% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Provincial 14,925 20% 20% 25% 30% 40% 50% 70% 90% 100% 100% 100%

Rural Feeder Roads 17,000 20% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 95% 100%

Urban Roads 2,000 20% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 95% 100%

Table 11 Annual Maintenance Budgets 2002-2013 (USD Millions)

Road Classification

Total Length (kms)

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

National 6,171 11.8 23.8 30.9 33.1 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 Provincial 14,925 10.2 10.2 12.7 15.3 20.4 25.5 35.7 45.9 51.0 51.0 51.0 Rural Feeder Roads

17,000 4.4 4.4 6.6 8.8 11.1 13.3 15.5 17.7 19.9 21.0 22.1

Urban Roads 2,000 1.7 1.7 2.6 3.5 4.4 5.2 6.1 7.0 7.8 8.3 8.7 Total 40,096 28.2 40.2 52.9 60.7 70.6 78.8 92.1 105.3 113.5 115.1 116.6

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The following figure shows the annual maintenance budget in chart form.

Figure 2 Annual Maintenance Costs 2002-2013

0

20,000,000

40,000,000

60,000,000

80,000,000

100,000,000

120,000,000

140,000,000

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-9

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

Year

US

D

National

Provincial

RuralFeederRoadsUrbanRoads

Total

Note that after the entire road network is rehabilitated in about 2013 there will continue to be further growth in the maintenance costs as the network is expanded and roads continue to be upgraded in response to increasing traffic demands and economic growth.

20. Financing

The donor funded programme (Appendix 1) may be separated into loan and grant funded components, as shown in the table below.

Table 12 Financing of Donor Projects

Type of Finance

Road Length Kms

Amount USD

Loan 2,433 528,000,000 Grant 1,838 703,319,862 Not known or not funded 480 159,656,644 Total 4,751 1,390,976,506

At this stage the bulk of the donor funds are being made available as grant money. As this is consumed and rehabilitation projects are completed over the next few years it is probable that new donor funds will increasingly come as loans. It is understood that the loans currently under negotiation, and considering the very difficult

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circumstance of Afganistan, the are being offered on very soft terms. Some examples of the the latter include 40 year repayment periods, capitalisation of principal and interest with no repayments within the first 10-years and interest rates as low as 0.5%pa..

The total budget requirements to rehabilitate and maintain the network are summarised in Table 12 and the data is presented graphicly on the chart below.

Figure 3 Total Annual Cost of Afghanistan Road Network

0.0

100.0

200.0

300.0

400.0

500.0

600.0

700.0

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-9

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

Year

US

D m

illio

ns

Subtotal -National

Subtotal -Provincial

Subtotal -RuralFeederRoadsSubtotal -UrbanRoads

Total - AllRoads

The chart illustrates the initial priority being given to rehabilitation of the national roads, with the major effort being expended up to about 2005 and then trailing off. It has been assumed that the provincial network wil take considerably longer to be fully rehabilitated. This may take until 2011. The urban roads and rural feeder road can be rehabilitated with a more uniform annual effort. By 2012 it is assumed in Figure 3 that all rehabilitation is completed and the only ongoing effort thereafter is for maintaninance of the network (about USD116m pa). This is a simplification because investment projects will still be required to replace older infrastructure (eg. bridges) and upgrade roads to cope with increasing traffic volumes due to normal economic development.

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Table 13 Summary of Required Road Budget


2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

National Maintenance 23.8 30.9 33.1 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 National Rehabilitation 184.0 453.7 342.3 156.0 142.0 113.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Subtotal – National Roads 207.8 484.5 375.4 190.8 176.8 147.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 34.8 Provincial Maintenance 10.2 12.7 15.3 20.4 25.5 35.7 45.9 51.0 51.0 51.0 Provincial Rehabilitation 74.6 74.6 149.3 149.3 298.5 298.5 149.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 Subtotal - Provincial 84.8 87.4 164.5 169.6 324.0 334.2 195.1 51.0 51.0 51.0 Rural Feeder Roads

Maintenance 4.4 6.6 8.8 11.1 13.3 15.5 17.7 19.9 21.0 22.1

Rural Feeder Roads Rehabilitation 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.0 8.5 8.5 0.0

Subtotal - Rural Feeder Roads 21.4 23.6 25.8 28.1 30.3 32.5 34.7 28.4 29.5 22.1 Urban Roads Maintenance 1.7 2.6 3.5 4.4 5.2 6.1 7.0 7.8 8.3 8.7 Urban Roads Rehabilitation 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 3.0 3.0 0.0 Subtotal - Urban Roads 7.7 8.6 9.5 10.4 11.2 12.1 13.0 10.8 11.3 8.7 Total - All Roads

321.8 604.2 575.2 398.9 542.3 526.6 277.6 125.0 126.6 116.6

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By combining data from Table 2 (Donor funding), Table 4 (likely government funding and Table 13 (total required road budget) the current budget shortfall can be estimated as shown in the following table.

Table 14 Overall Road Budget Financing (USD millions)

Donor Government Shortfall Total -

All Roads

2003-04 184.0 24.0 113.8 321.8 2004-05 453.7 66.0 84.5 604.2 2005-06 342.3 63.1 169.8 575.2 2006-07 156.0 69.4 173.4 398.9 2007-08 142.0 76.4 323.9 542.3

The large donor contributions (grants and loan funds) currently flowing into Afghanistan are, of course, only intended as a temporary measure to help the country back on its feet. Further sustainable sources of funds are still required to complete the necessary road rehabilitation, for road maintenance, and to a lesser extent for new construction over the long term. Despite the current donor contributions there will be a large shortfall to be financed by the government directly or from other sources. The issue of road funding sources and mechanisms in Afghanistan has been addressed in detail in the separate TSR consultation paper “2.3 Funding” which forms another part of this Road Infrastructure Report. Recommendations regarding institutional arrangements for administration of the different levels of the road network are also contained therein.

21. Conclusion

This paper has reviewed and presented preliminary work programmes and developed budget estimates to first rehabilitate and then maintain the Afghanistan road network. The Budget estimates have been separated into four main network components (ie. National, Provincial, Rural Feeder Roads and Urban Roads) . The budget has also been separated into estimates for rehabilitating existing roads (including bridges) to restore them to fair condition or better and the costs of optimum maintenance works that will sustain each network component at the required condition into the future. Cost estimates for these items are shown in Tables 11 and 12 above.

Due to the dearth of accurate or current data about the condition of the Afghanistan’s roads, and the lack of recent unit rates and tender prices, many assumptions and approximations have been adopted in preparing this report. For this reason the costs in this paper can only be considered as “ball park” estimates and should be reviewed and refined as development of the road sector takes place and new data comes to hand in the future. Two of the top priorities should be to review and update the current functional classification system for roads and to carry out a thorough condition survey of all roads and bridges, starting with the national roads but extending to all levels of the road hierachy. These will provide the base data to asses much more accurately the true extent of road rehabilitation and maintainance required for Afghanistan.

A further, and most critical, priority is to put in place adequately resourced arrangements to sustainably maintain the road infrastructure and thus preserve the

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benefits of the current investments in road rehabilitation. Without proper maintenance the roads will inevitably deteriorate resulting in huge costs to road users and the need for further major rehabilitation efforts within less than 10 years.

References

Afghanistan Assistance Coordination Authority, Transport Programme, 1382 Public Investment Programme, 12 March 2003

Afghanistan Construction and Logistics Unit (ACLU) and USAID, Afghanistan Road Condition Survey (ARCS) database, 1991-94

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Comprehensive Needs Assessment for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in the Transport Sector – Afghanistan, August 2002

Heggie, Ian G. Managing and Financing of Roads - An Agenda for Reform, World Bank Technical Paper Number 275, Africa Technical Series, 1995

Interim Afghanistan Administration (IAA), Draft Afghanistan National Development Framework (NDF), April 2002.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Afghanistan Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment, 2003. ISBN 92-1-158617-8

World Bank Roads and Highways Thematic Group, ROCKS – Road Costs Knowledge System, Version 2.01, 9 September 2002

Appendix 1

Donor Funded Road Rehabilitation ProjectsNo. Location Province Via Location Province

Road Type

DescriptionLength

kmDonor Finance

Total Value USD

2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008 +

1 Kandahar Kandahar Kandahar Kandahar Urban 9 Japan Grant 1,242,825 1,242,825

2 Kabul Kabul Sarobi Primary 68 EU Grant 55,000,000 10,000,000 45,000,000

3 Sarobi Jalalabad Primary 74 EU Grant 38,000,000 38,000,000

4 Jalalabad Torkham Nangarhar Primary 80 Pakistan Grant 40,000,000 40,000,000

5 Kabul Kabul Sur Pol Wardak Primary Minor rehab only

43 USA Grant 15,000,000 10,000,000 5,000,000

6 Sur Pol (south of Maidanshar)

Wardak Salar Wardak Primary km 43 to 92 on K-K road

49 USA Grant 33,000,000 16,000,000 17,000,000

7 Salar Wardak Ghazni Ghazni Primary km 92 to 142 on K-K Road

50 USA Grant 29,000,000 20,000,000 9,000,000

8 Ghazni Ghazni W of Shar-e-Safa

Zabul Primary km 142 to 442 on K-K Road

300 USA Grant 103,000,000 55,000,000 40,000,000 8,000,000

9 W of Shar-e-Safa

Zabul Kandahar Kandahar Primary km 442 to 492 on K-K Road

50 Japan Grant 25,000,000 10,000,000 15,000,000

10 Kandahar Kandahar Gereshk Helmand Primary km 0 to 116 on K-H Road

116 USA Grant 35,000,000 10,000,000 15,000,000 10,000,000

11 Gereshk (Km116)

Helmand Herat Herat Primary km 116 to 588 on K-H Road

472 USA/Japan /Saudi ?

Grant 186,196,121 36,196,121 50,000,000 50,000,000 50,000,000

12 70km W of Kandahar

Helmand Lashkar-Gar Helmand Provincial 43 USA Grant 15,000,000 10,000,000 5,000,000

13 Kandahar Kandahar Spin-Boldak Kandahar Primary 105 ADB Grant 11,000,000 8,000,000 3,000,000

14 Pul-e-Khumri Baghlan Mazar-e-Sharif

Balkh Primary 203 ADB Loan 35,000,000 5,300,000 16,000,000 13,700,000

15 Mazar-e-Sharif

Balkh Shiberghan Jowzjan Primary 150 ADB Loan 36,000,000 2,000,000 17,000,000 17,000,000

16 Shiberghan Jowzjan Andkhoy Faryab Primary 82 ADB Loan 19,000,000 5,000,000 10,000,000 4,000,000

17 Andkhoy Faryab Meymanah Herat Herat Primary 540 ADB Loan 150,000,000 10,000,000 50,000,000 50,000,000 40,000,000

From Cashflow EstimateTo

Appendix 1

No. Location Province Via Location ProvinceRoad Type

DescriptionLength

kmDonor Finance

Total Value USD

2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008 +

From Cashflow EstimateTo

18 Andkhoy Faryab Aquina Faryab Primary to Turkmenistan Border

40 ADB Loan 9,000,000 9,000,000

19 Naibabad Balkh Chagcharan Hairatan Balkh Primary to Termez, Uzbek border

55 ADB Loan 7,000,000 7,000,000

20 Bamian Bamian Herat Herat Secondary 732 ADB Loan 150,000,000 30,000,000 30,000,000 30,000,000 60,000,000

21 Herat Herat Islam Qala Herat Primary to Iran border 123 Iran Grant 20,020,544 10,010,272 8,008,218 2,002,054

22 Delaram Nimroz Zaranj Nimroz Primary to Iran border 216 Iran & India Grant 35,155,911 8,788,978 17,577,955 8,788,978

23 Charikar Parvan Bamian Bamian Secondary Alt route Kabul to Bamian

Italy or World Bank?

Grant 20,000,000 10,000,000 10,000,000

24 Maidanshar Kabul Syahkhak Gardan Diwal

Wardak Secondary 40 Italy Grant 41,704,461 2,000,000 25,000,000 14,704,461

25 Gardan Diwal

Wardak Bamian Bamian Secondary Not funded ? 100 Italy/Iran ???

? 88,042,752 22,010,688 22,010,688 44,021,376

26 Kabul Kabul Doshi Baghlan Primary 177 World Bank Loan 21,840,000 10,000,000 11,840,000

27 Doshi Kabul Pol-e-khomri Baghlan Primary 47 World Bank Loan 9,360,000 4,360,000 5,000,000

28 Pol-e-khomri Baghlan Shirkhan Bandar

Kunduz Primary 169 World Bank Loan 37,800,000 17,800,000 20,000,000

Shirkhan Bandar

Kunduz Tajikistan - Primary Bridge to replace ferry across Amu Darya River

1 USAID Grant 10,000,000 10,000,000

29 Kunduz Kunduz Taloqan Takhar Secondary 68 World Bank Loan 20,000,000 20,000,000

30 Taloqan Takhar Faizabad Badakhshan Secondary 169 World Bank Loan 23,000,000 6,000,000 17,000,000

31 Jalalabad Nangarhar Assadabad Kamdesh Nuristan Secondary 160 ? ? 35,806,946 6,510,354 14,000,000 15,296,592

32 Kabul Kabul Khost Khost Primary Not funded ? 220 ? ? 35,806,946 10,000,000 25,806,946

Totals 4,751 1,390,976,506 183,969,603 453,665,119 342,299,032 156,010,688 142,010,688 113,021,376Exchange Rates USD1.00 =

AFA 41.4724EUR 0.8632 Average Cost /km292,776

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Donor prog?

Project name kms Ministry 1381 1382 1383 1384 Total 1381 1382 1383 1384 Total

2003 2004 2005 2006 2003 2004 2005 20062.1.1 ROADS INFRASTRUCTURE:Technical Assistance - Support/Training

AFG/ 03257

MPW 4.40 4.40 4.40 4.40

Technical Assistance - Support/Training

AFG/ 03001

MPW 0.50 0.60 1.10 0.50 0.60 1.10

1 Institutional and Policy Studies

AFG/ 03258

MPW/MCAT

0.70 0.80 1.50 0.70 0.80 1.50

2 Bridges, Culverts, Reconstruction, etc

AFG/ 03002

MPW 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

3 Kabul-Jalalabad-Torqum - Emergency rehab.

AFG/ 03003

MPW 0.85 0.85 0.85 0.85

4 Old Road of Baglan/Second line Kabul/Chahricor

AFG/ 03423

MPW 1.50 1.50

5 Herat-Kalau Now-Maimana MPW rehab. 15 kms

15 AFG/ 03005

MPW 0.50 0.50

6 Jalalabad-Asad Abad MPW rehab 15 kms

15 AFG/ 03006

MPW 1.50 1.50

7 Kabul-Gardaiz-Khost MPW rehab 20 kms

20 AFG/ 03007

MPW 2.00 2.00

8 Re-equip Dept. of Construction

AFG/ 03008

MPW 0.10 5.00 5.10 0.10 0.10

9 Emergency Works - 7 bridges

AFG/ 03009

MPW 1.50 1.50

10 Surkhakan-Lakhmon - rehab (1381 budget)

AFG/ 03010

MPW 1.70 1.70

11 Kandahar-Tirin Kot 173 kms – feasibility

173 AFG/ 03259

MPW 1.00 12.50 12.50 26.00

12 Maimana-Andkhoy-Aquina rehab - 157 kms – feasibility

157 AFG/ 03011

MPW 1.00 9.30 9.70 20.00

13 Pul-e-Khumri-Mazar-e-Sharif rehab 188 kms

188 AFG/ 03013

MPW 6.00 13.00 6.30 25.30 6.00 13.00 6.30 25.30

14 Mazar-e-Sharif-Shiberghan rehab 132 kms

132 AFG/ 03018

MPW 6.00 20.00 26.00 6.00 20.00 26.00

D 15 Shiberghan-Andkhoy rehab. 72 kms

72 AFG/ 03021

MPW 2.00 12.00 14.00 2.00 12.00 14.00

16 Andkhoy-Aquina rehab. 36 kms

36 AFG/ 03023

MPW 9.00 9.00 9.00 9.00

17 Naibabad-Hairatan rehab. 55 kms

55 AFG/ 03032

MPW 7.00 7.00 7.00 7.00

D 18 Kabul-Doshi; Pol-e-Khumri-Shirkan; Salang etc

347 AFG/ 03014

MPW 20.00 30.00 17.10 67.10 20.00 30.00 17.10 67.10

D 19 Kabul-Jalalabad-Torqum - rehab. 220 kms

220 AFG/ 03016

MPW 48.00 20.00 68.00 20.00 48.00 20.00 88.00

D 20 Kabul-Ghazni-Qalat-Kandahar rehab. 450 kms

450 AFG/ 03017

MPW 9.20 50.00 95.00 63.90 218.10 9.20 93.90 45.00 10.00 158.10

D 21 Kandahar-Spin Boldak rehab. 108 kms

108 AFG/ 03026

MPW 5.70 5.00 10.70 5.70 5.00 10.70

D 22 Herat-Chagcharan-Bamian - rehab. 732 kms

732 AFG/ 03028

MPW 219.60 219.60

D 23 Bamian-Kabul rehab. 140 kms

140 AFG/ 03260

MPW 12.00 35.00 47.00 15.00 15.00

D 24 Herat-Islam Qala rehab. 123 kms

123 AFG/ 03030

MPW 4.50 9.50 4.50 18.50 4.50 9.50 4.50 18.50

25 Herat-Torgundi rehab. 160 kms

160 AFG/ 03029

MPW 12.00 20.00 32.00

D 26 Herat-Maimana rehab. 613 kms

613 AFG/ 03019

MPW 46.10 46.10 92.20 46.10 46.10 92.20

D 27 Kandahar to km 116 (towards Herat) & Secondary road Kashkar Gar. 116 kms and 43 kms rehab.

159 AFG/ 03027

MPW 22.00 28.00 50.00 22.00 28.00 50.00

D 28 Km 116 (Kandahar) to Herat rehab. 472 kms

472 AFG/ 03261

MPW 30.00 141.60 171.60

D 29 Delaram-Zaranj rehab. 216 kms

216 AFG/ 03031

MPW 8.10 16.20 8.10 32.40

D 30 Jalalabad-Asad Abad-Kamdish rehab. 160 kms

160 AFG/ 03020

MPW 6.00 13.50 13.50 33.00

D 31 Kabul-Khost rehab. 220 kms.

220 AFG/ 03024

MPW 6.00 27.00 33.00

32 Torquan-Faizabad;Charikor-Bamian rehab. Secondary roads. 329 kms

329 AFG/ 03034

MPW 11.00 27.00 38.00 11.00 27.00 38.00

33 Delaram-Chaghcharam rehab. 377 kms.

377 AFG/ 03428

MPW 0.15 56.60 56.75

34 Bamian-Mazar-e-Sharif rehab. 360 kms

360 AFG/ 03433

MPW 0.15 54.00 54.15

35 Bamian-Doshi rehab. 160 kms

160 AFG/ 03437

MPW 0.06 24.00 24.06

36 Chaghchoran-Maimana 335 kms

335 AFG/ 03445

MPW 0.07 50.30 50.37

37 Jabalsaraj-Panjshir-Karmanjan-Zebax rehab. 340 kms

340 AFG/ 03447

MPW 0.07 51.00 51.07

38 Gardes-Ghazni rehab. 85 kms

85 AFG/ 03038

MPW 0.05 12.90 12.95

39 Pul Alam-Ghazni rehab. 80 kms

80 AFG/ 03448

MPW 0.05 12.00 12.05

40 Gardiz-Sharan Orgon rehab. 115 kms

115 AFG/ 03451

MPW 0.05 17.30 17.35

41 Shiberghan-Sar e Pule-Bulcharagh rehabilitation 135 kms

135 AFG/ 03454

MPW 0.05 20.30 20.35

Total proposed funding ($USDm) Total funded component ($USDm)2.1 TRANSPORT

Appendix 2

Donor prog?

Project name kms Ministry 1381 1382 1383 1384 Total 1381 1382 1383 1384 Total

2003 2004 2005 2006 2003 2004 2005 2006

Total proposed funding ($USDm) Total funded component ($USDm)2.1 TRANSPORT

42 Khangean-Andarab-Khostfeng-Naren_Baghlan rehab 260 kms.

260 AFG/ 03455

MPW 0.05 39.00 39.05

43 Qurghaly-Kaghman-Noorstan rehab. 67 kms

67 AFG/ 03544

MPW 0.05 10.10 10.15

44 Shekhabad-Chak-Bahsod rehab. 110 kms

110 AFG/ 03463

MPW 0.05 16.50 16.55

45 Khost-Ghulamkhan rehab. 70 kms

70 AFG/ 03465

MPW 0.05 10.50 10.55

46 Labour Based Public Works

AFG/ 03039

MPW 12.20 20.00 9.80 42.00 12.20 20.00 9.80 42.00

47 7 pre-fabricated bridges

AFG/ 03467

MPW 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

48 Bridge Reconstruction - Zaranj

AFG/ 03469

MPW

Totals 7,806 13.35 180 473 1033.2 1699.55 13.35 205.1 279.6 172.8 670.85

Subtotals 4,032 Donor Prog 9.20 128.30 364.30 573.40 1,075.20 9.20 181.10 213.60 109.70 513.603,774 non-Donor 4.15 51.70 108.70 459.80 624.35 4.15 24.00 66.00 63.10 157.25

Average Cost/km Donor Prog USD 2,282/km USD 31,820/km USD 90,352/km USD 142,212/km USD 266,667/km USD 2,282/km USD 44,916/km USD 52,976/km USD 27,207/km ############non-Donor USD 1,100/km USD 13,699/km USD 28,802/km USD 121,834/km USD 165,435/km USD 1,100/km USD 6,359/km USD 17,488/km USD 16,720/km USD 41,667/kmTotal USD 1,710/km USD 23,059/km USD 60,594/km USD 132,360/km USD 217,724/km USD 1,710/km USD 26,275/km USD 35,819/km USD 22,137/km USD 85,940/km

Source: AACA May 2003

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Description(Note 1)

Length Km(Note 1)

Cost USD (Note 2)

1 Kandahar-Bamyan Road 657 65,700,000 2 Bamyan-Mazare-Sharif Road 380 38,000,000 3 Doshi-Bamyan Road 160 16,000,000 4 Jabalsaraj-Panjshir-Karmanjan-Zebak Road 335 33,500,000 5 Gardez-Ghazni Road 86 8,600,000 6 Pule-Alam-Ghazni Road 80 8,000,000 7 Gardez-Shran-Orgon Road 115 11,500,000 8 Shiberghan-Sare-Pul-Belcharagh Road 135 13,500,000 9 Khinjan-Andarab-Khost-Freng-Nahrin-Baghlan Road 260 26,000,000

10 Laghman-Nooristan Road 67 6,700,000 11 Shaikhabad-Chak-Behsood Road 110 11,000,000 12 Jalalabad-Asadabad-Kamdesh Road 220 22,000,000 13 Delaram-Chaghcharan Road 377 37,700,000 14 Chaghcharan-Bamyan Road 344 34,400,000 15 Herat-Chaghcharan Road 351 35,100,000 16 Khost-Ghulam Khan Road 70 7,000,000 17 Kabul-Gardez-Khost Road 220 22,000,000 18 Herat-Turghundi Road 119 11,900,000

Total 4,086 408,600,000

Note 1: Source: Ministry of Public Works, June 2003Note 2: Cost based on USD100,000/km (Consultant's Estimate)

List of the roads have not been yet included in the index of the donor countries

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Length (km)

AADT Fixed Variable Total Fixed Variable TotalTotals by Classif'n

National RoadsPaved 3,300 1,000 1,646,680 9,331,185 10,977,865 7,396,196 4,926,944 12,323,140Gravel 2,671 300 1,237,433 1,449,693 2,687,126 3,643,802 4,985,323 8,629,125Earth 200 50 36,184 151,200 187,384 0Sub Total 6,171 13,852,374 20,952,264 34,804,639

Provincial RoadsPaved 200 300 441,141 110,285 551,427 294,418 45,325 339,743Gravel 10,994 300 5,093,236 5,966,889 11,060,125 14,997,771 20,519,428 35,517,199Earth 3,731 50 675,049 2,820,825 3,495,874 0Sub Total 14,925 15,107,426 35,856,942 50,964,368

Rural Feeder RoadsPaved 0 - 0 0Gravel 2,550 50 461,340 2,076,030 2,537,370 3,022,514 3,022,514 6,045,029Earth 14,450 50 2,614,260 10,924,200 13,538,460 0Sub Total 17,000 16,075,829 6,045,029 22,120,858

Urban RoadsPaved 300 1,000 149,698 848,290 997,988 441,627 67,987 509,614Gravel 1,700 300 787,584 922,680 1,710,264 2,319,155 3,172,987 5,492,142Earth 0 - 0 0Sub Total 2,000 2,708,252 6,001,757 8,710,008

Totals 40,096 47,743,881 68,855,992

Total Annual Maintenance Cost (Routine + Periodic + Winter + Emerg') = USD 116,599,873 pa

Cost of Maintaining the Afghanistan Road Network (After All Routes have been Rehabilitated)Routine Maintenance

(USD millions)Periodic Maintenance

(USD millions)

Road Classification

Appendix 4: Page 1 of 3

Surface Type Total kms DifferenceSurface

TypeMaintainance

TypeTotal kms

Paved 3,800 6,763 /km 2,650 Paved Routine 3,800 3,297 /kmGravel 17,915 4,113 /km 3,176 Periodic 3,800 3,466 /kmEarth 18,381 937 /km Gravel Routine 17,915 1,004 /km

Periodic 17,915 3,108 /kmWhole Network 40,096 2,908 /km Earth Routine 18,381 937 /km

Periodic 18,381 0 /km

40,096

Average Cost USD

Average Cost USD


Description UnitFinancial Cost 1995

Financial Cost 2000

Cost Factor

Financial Cost 2003

Add Snow

Removal

Add Emerg' Repairs

Total Financial Cost 2003

Fixed Cost

Variable Cost

Fixed%

Variable %

Data Source (Note 1) (Note 2) (Note 3) (Note 4) 5%Maintenance Activities - Paved Roads (Note 5) 2.50% PARoutine Maintenance (1000 AADT) USD/km-yr 2,200 2,600 1.18 2,800 200 327 3,327 499 2,828 15.00% 85.00%Routine Maintenance ( 300 AADT) USD/km-yr 1,850 2,186 1.18 2,354 200 203 2,757 2,206 551 80.00% 20.00%Reseal (single) USD/km-yr 22,400 27,700 1.24 29,830 - - 29,830Asphalt Overlay (~40mm) USD/km-yr 56,000 70,000 1.25 75,382 - - 75,382

Average= 1.21

Total Maintenance Costs - Paved Roads (Note 6)1000 AADT USD/km-yr 5,004 6,068 1.21 6,534 - - 7,061 2,740 4,321 38.81% 61.19% 300 AADT USD/km-yr 3,104 3,764 1.21 4,053 - - 4,456 3,678 778 82.54% 17.46%

Periodic Maintenance Costs - Paved Roads (Note 7)1000 AADT USD/km-yr 3,734 3,734 2,241 1,493 60% 40% 300 AADT USD/km-yr 1,699 1,699 1,472 227 87% 13%

Note 1 Rates taken from: Heggie, Ian; Management and Financing of Roads, World Bank Technical Paper 275, 1995Note 2 Data from World Bank ROCKS - Road Costs Knowledge System (v2.01, 9/09/02)Note 3 Excluding snow removal & emergency repairs. 2003 costs escalated at 2.5%pa for 3 years from 2000-2003Note 4 Consultant's estimate, Assuming USD2000/km-yr for 10% of road networkNote 5 Data from Heggie 1995, Tables A4.1 & A4.3Note 6 Data from Heggie 1995, Table A4.2, modified Structural Number (SNC) = 3, multiplied by Average Cost Factor to get 2000 estimateNote 7 Periodic = Total - RoutineNote 8 2003 costs escalated at 2.5%pa for 3 years from 2000-2003

Maintenance Costs


Base Unit2000 Rate USD/unit

2003 Rate USD/unit

Average Annual Maintenance Costs M F V M F V M F V

Routine Grading km 120 129 4 0 517 6 0 775 3 0 720Routine Other Routine Maintenance km-yr as shown as shown 1 241 0 1 172 0 1 172 0Routine Snow Removal (assume 10% of length) km 2,000 1 200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0Routine Emergency Repairs (Allow 5% of above) km 22 26 9 39 9 36

Sub Total - Routine Maintenance 463 543 181 814 181 756Periodic Regravelling km 12,000 12,923 0.25 1,364 1,866 0.11 1,185 1,185 0 0 0

Total Costs 1,827 2,409 1,366 1,999 181 756Grand Total

Notes:Base rates from ROCKS 2000, escalated to 2003 prices @ 2.5%pa for 3 yearsM = No. of treatments per yearF = Fixed costs USD/km-yrV = Variable costs USD/km-yr

4,237 3,366 937

Gravel Roads Earth Roads

300 AADT 50 AADT 50 AADT


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