A Review of Highway Agencies in the South Asia Region

A Review of Highway Agencies in the South Asia Region
REFORM
Economist explicitly
involved in planning
and development
Some nontechnical (and nontraditional) competencies could be located in the national
road agencies in the region and in the Road Development Corporation/Boards established
in India. However, the quality of skills needs to be enhanced; for example, only 30 percent
of the highway agencies are able to provide safety statistics for the road network because
safety is not a core competence of the agencies, nor is it considered their responsibility
or concern. In addition, only 40 percent of the highway agencies have a safety council or
committee in place, evidence of the fact that safety is not on the list of priorities for most
highway agencies.
The structure of highway agencies in South Asia is based on the functions carried out
by them. Some highway agencies have restructured themselves along functional lines,
but structures based on territorial/regional jurisdictions still continue in many cases and
sometimes coexist with functional arrangements in the headquarters. Some highway
agencies have also set up regional branches for the execution of construction works. The
creation of a separate, dedicated organization or department to deal with large projects
is also not uncommon – particularly in those agencies that receive external multilateral
funding for the development of highway networks. Most highway agencies have now
established quality management/control units and a few have set up specialist cells for
planning and asset management, road safety management, social and environment
aspects, and so on. However, the terms of reference of these specialist cells are usually not
very well defined and they fail to attract staff with relevant skills. Among the national road
agencies, Bangladesh provides an exception in the region, where the road agency structure
includes a Planning and Development cell, headed by an economist, responsible for the
prioritization of road projects according to economic need.
The RDCs have a slightly different management structure. They are formed as corporate
entities under the relevant companies/corporate act and governed by a board consisting of
majority representation from the government and limited representation from road users/
private sector. Most organizations have been created as an implementation arm of the PWD
to promote PPP contracts. They also enjoy more independence in decision making and, at
times, are able to raise resources from the market. Although their overall mandate is limited
in comparison with the regular road authorities, their corporate structure provides them the
leverage of faster implementation and expeditious decision-making capability.
In all cases, powers are delegated from the most senior official to subordinate officials.
The extent of delegation varies across organizations. Delegation of powers is categorized
by nature (approval of proposals, time extensions, cost overruns, and so on) and size, for
example, minor cost or time overruns can be approved by junior officials. For instance, in
the case of Pakistan, powers are (officially) not delegated to a level lower than the head of
department.
Bangladesh
The Bangladesh RHD has a clearly defined structure (Figure 2.12): Five Additional Chief
Engineers head the different departments of the RHD and report to a Chief Engineer,
who is the highest-ranking official of the RHD. In addition, there are nine Additional
Chief Engineers; one in each zone and four or five Additional Chief Engineers who work
as Project Directors of Development Projects. The Chief Engineer is appointed by the
ministry, to which he also reports. The departments of RHD are aligned to functions, for
example, planning and development, and bridges as well as geographic zones. There are no
departments catering specifically to projects funded by international financial institutions
(IFIs) or donor agencies.
India
In India, many states have PWDs headed by a (Principal) Secretary, a bureaucrat from
the administrative services and/or an Engineer-in-Chief from the department itself, rising
through the ranks. There are instances where the technical head, that is, the Engineer-
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