State Road Improvement Project Rehabilitation ... - Emerging Kerala

State Road Improvement ProjectRehabilitation ProjectPackage III – South Region - ProfilePage 1 of 6PPa

“State Road Improvement Project”Rehabilitation Project Package III – South RegionBackgroundKerala Government has embarked upon a massive State Road NetworkDevelopment Programme, ie: the State Road Improvement Project, aimedat the development of an excellent state - of - the art road network byimproving the existing State Highways and important major DistrictRoads. The objective of the Improvement project is to enhance thecapacity and riding quality, ensuring high quality construction, propermaintenance plan, road safety and reducing state and reducing State’sexpenditure for periodic maintenance. Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB),Govt. of Kerala, has selected Wilbur Smith Associates to prepare atechnical report on short listing the roads for improvement and structuringthem into various packages for implementation.A stretch of 1204 km of road have been identified and categorised intotwo groups ie: 1) Rehabilitation scheme and (2) for up gradation scheme.The term “Rehabilitation includes strengthening/ rehabilitation/improvements to pavement, structures/ road furniture/ traffic managementmeasures, etc. Up gradation involves widening of the carriageway withpaved shoulders restricting mostly within the available right – of – way orwith minimum land acquisition at selected locations as part of thecapacity augmentation. However the up gradation of roads whichinvolves major land acquisitions were categorised separately.Suitable contract packages were finalised and recommended forimplementation. Contract packages were finalised separately for“rehabilitation” and “up gradation”. The roads selected underrehabilitation category consist of total of 551 kms spread across 28sections.Deficiency analysis & Proposed Improvement under RehabilitationBased on the field surveys such as traffic volume count and OD surveys,road inventory & Condition Surveys, BBD Surveys etc, the details on theexisting features along with deficiencies were identified and the proposalsfor the improvements were made accordingly. Under Rehabilitationscheme, the existing road geometry is retained as it is in order to avoidland acquisition and only pavement strengthening is carried out withsuitable traffic management devices such as road markings, signage,studs, and crash barriers.The proposed improvements for the roads under rehabilitation packagesincludePage 2 of 6PPa1

Strengthen ing of the existing pavementsReconstruction of the existing road at locations where thepavement is under poor conditionRepair & minor improvements to the existing bridges & culvertsReconstruction of the narrow bridges & culverts including thebridges/ culverts which are under poor conditionRoad markings & signage’s, junction improvements, etc.Criteria for finalisation of Contract PackagingContract packaging means grouping of individual projects of similarnature together for easiness in implementation. Contract packaging givesmore flexibility to the contractor in terms of a) phasing of work front b)earth work balances c) applicability of the tailor made solutions and d)efficient use of man and machine. All these help in delivering the goodquality work in a short span of time. To achieve this, contiguous stretchesshould be grouped together as far as possible and geographical spread isthe criteria adopted for grouping. In addition to this, the time framestipulated for completion and financial capability or in other words bidcapacity of contractors to execute the work within the given time framewill also to be considered in packaging. As mentioned earlier the roadsselected for rehabilitation schemes twenty seven road stretches (551kms)spread across the state.Finalised Contract PackagesThe above said roads have been grouped into three packages based on thegeographical spread. In general, the packaging also conforms to theconcept of three circles of PWD, i.e. North, Central and South. Thesummary of recommended packages is presented in the table givenbelow.PackageLength(kms)Block costapprox (Rs. InMillionPackage 1: North region: Kasaragod, 219.30 4013.10Kannur, Malappuram and WayanadPackage II: Central Region: Palakkad, 158.90 2387.00Thrissur, Ernakkulam and IdukkiPackage III: South Region:173.00 2521.00Alappuzha, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta,Kollam, ThiruvananthapuramPackage Total 551.20 8921.10Page 3 of 6PPa2

The package III is detailed here in this profile. The Package II- Southregion includes eight road stretches selected for rehabilitation schemes inKottayam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuramdistricts, comprising 173.00 kms of road stretches. This package coversthe south circle of PWD and Palakkad district. This includes SHs of 112kms and Major District Roads of 61 kms. The roads are presented in thetable given below.S.No1234Road Name Start Junction End Junction Type Road Length(km)Erattupetta –Peerumedu roadSabarimala –Kodaikanal RoadPika –Vilakkumadam –Bharananganam –Choolanchery –PiravithanamAlappuzha – MadurairoadApprox TotalCost(Milions)Nadakkal Vagamon SH-14 24.60 428.26ErumelyKalaketty-ThonnikkalSH-44 48.00 417.05Pika Pirvaithanam MDR 14.00 188.87Power house BdgThanneermukkamSH-40 22.50 328.315Kottayam –Kozhanchery roadNedungandampallyPulland SH-09 16.80 482.026Thiruvalla –Mallappally roadThiruvalla Mallappally MDR 14.50 235.207 Kollam – Ayoor road Kollam Meyanoor MDR 16.80 236.438Arattukuzhi –Amboori NeyyarDam roadKalunkunada Devapura MDR 15.80 204.82Total Length 173.00 2520.96Economic AnalysisEconomic analysis has been carried out for the finalised contract packagesas well as for the entire packages together. The cost benefit analysis iscarried out by using the discounted cash flow (DCF) technique to obtainthe Economic internal rate of return (EIRR), economic net present value(ENPV) for the proposed investments linked with the project. This isfollowed by a sensitivity analysis carried out by increasing or decreasingthe critical factors affecting the cost and benefit streams of the proposedproject, in order to ascertain their effect on the economic feasibilityindicators i.e. ENPV, EIRR.Page 4 of 6PPa3

The interest cost on the borrowing for implementing the projectThe funds required to repay the loan in instalmentsThe funds required to pay income taxesAfter considering the aforementioned cash flows, the resultant net cashflows are discounted at the appropriate discounted rate, to arrive at eitherthe Present Value or the Internal Rate of Return. The results are thencompared to arrive at the best financing option.The Funding methodology set out is specific to the package forrehabilitation roads. The various characteristics of the rehabilitationpackages being proposed are as follows:None of the roads selected in this packages for rehabilitation needany land acquisition for completing the workOnly improvements of the road would be doneThere will not be any capacity enhancement of carrying capacityNo safeguards issues (both Environmental and Social)Consequently the works on these roads can be taken up without anydelay and completed at the earliest.ConclusionAll road sections and packages were estimated to be economicallyfeasible with respect to EIRR, ENPV and FIRR and found to be robust atworst conditions also. If road safety benefits like savings in accident costare added to the benefit stream, the EIRR will improve further by 2% to3%. Also feasibility of these roads should be considered along with thequalitative benefits these projects which were not considered in theanalysis and they include tourism development, road environmentimprovement, travel safety, improved drainage etc.Page 6 of 6PPa5