KSTP a mixed bag, says WB expert

Thiruvananthapuram: World Bank Task Leader Arnab Bandyopadhyay feels that though the first phase of the Kerala State Transport Project has been a mixed bag of success and failure, the final outcome has been very good.

He said that apart from the World Bank, funding from the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) was getting limited. He was speaking at a workshop here, coinciding with the launch of KSTP –II on Wednesday.

The main objective of KSTP - II is to improvise conditions, traffic flow and road safety with focus on the volume of road users on selected roads in Kerala.  Bandyopadhyay said that 75 per cent of the roads in the State fell under the vulnerable category where the majority of users were two-wheeler riders.

“Though there are no documents to prove that there’s an increase in the number of crashes and injuries on Kerala roads, I can say that these are due to the vulnerable road conditions. So it’s high time we improved the conditions of these vulnerable roads”, he said.

He called for the need to leverage finances through Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) and hoped that KSTP - II would become a role model for other states.

“The success of KSTP - II lies in three components – road network upgrading and safety improvement, road safety management and institutional strengthening. It is for the first time in the country that a Road Safety Challenge Fund has been launched here so as to garner funds from other areas apart from funding agencies”, added Bandyopadhyay.

Later, Public Works Minister V.K.Ebrahim Kunju said though there had been a lot of  criticism from various quarters during the first phase of KSTP, even former PWD Minister T.M.Thomas Issac had changed his stand.

“KSTP - II has a total road stretch of 163 km at an estimated cost of Rs 2,403 cr where already work on three roads has started”, said Ebrahim Kunju.