Capital difficulties in traffic maintenance and repair

(Baonghean) - In recent years, the provincial traffic system has been continuously expanded, creating many conveniences for people in traveling as well as developing the local economy and society. However, the capital for managing and maintaining roads and inland waterways only meets 40-50% of the demand, greatly affecting the traffic and economic development of the region.

Socialization efforts

Because it is not located in the economic development pole and is a low-lying area, Yen Thanh is considered a district with an unsynchronized rural traffic system, many routes are degraded.

Faced with the above situation, in recent times, the locality has done a good job of socializing to maintain and upgrade rural traffic, so in 2016; the road surface was concreted with a length of over 80km, the road surface was compensated with more than 50,000 m3 of compacted waste, more than 150,000 m3 of hill gravel...

In addition, the district has balanced capital sources and mobilized capital sources from higher levels and contributions to invest in the construction of the district road system, such as: Maintenance of the town road - Duc Thanh, Hau Thanh section; maintenance of Bao Thanh - Dai Son road, Bao Thanh section; road to Tien Thanh commune People's Committee headquarters; district hospital road - Hop Thanh...; total implementation value is nearly 150 billion VND (of which the commune budget is more than 15 billion VND, people contribute more than 50 billion VND, the rest is other capital sources). The district People's Committee has assigned communes and towns to continue mobilizing people to contribute to the construction of rural roads, including mobilizing contributions from cadres, workers and employees residing in the locality.

Maintenance of National Highway 48.

Anh Son district has also done a good job in rural road maintenance by focusing on resource mobilization, site clearance, strengthening investment management and supervision, etc., creating a clear mark on urban and rural infrastructure in general. The Directive of the Standing Committee of Anh Son District Party Committee on strengthening the management and maintenance of rural roads has really created positive changes among the people. In 2016, the entire Anh Son district maintained 500 km; people dredged tens of thousands of km of ditches and drainage ditches and cleared 2,589 bridges and drainage culverts.

Overcoming financial difficulties

In 2016, Nghe An was approved by the Ministry of Transport to convert a number of local roads (total length of 620.45 km) to national highways; at the same time, the province also converted a number of district roads (with a total length of 470 km) to provincial roads. This is an effort of the province to reduce pressure on the budget for traffic maintenance costs. According to the statistics, currently, the Department of Transport manages and maintains 36 roads (total length of 1,737.5 km); 8 river routes with a total implementation cost of 244.58 billion VND in the year.

One of the roads in Yen Thanh district is in disrepair and needs constant maintenance.

However, traffic maintenance and repair work still has many shortcomings, the biggest reason being lack of funding. Mr. Nguyen Van Sang - Deputy Head of the Economic Infrastructure Department of Yen Thanh district said: Currently, to serve people's travel, we continue to compensate for road surfaces to ensure traffic safety at the end of the year. However, in the long term, we need support from the province and the Central Government, because there are currently more than 30 weak bridges in the area, of which 5 are particularly serious and need to be invested in upgrading and renewing. In addition, the rescue road system has been unfinished for many years, such as the rescue road but also the main road from Dien Chau district to Do Luong, construction from 2011 to now has only been completed 14/21km due to lack of funding.

Mr. Vuong Dinh Nhuan - Director of the Department of Public Capital Project Management (Department of Transport) said: The Department of Transport currently manages 840 km of provincial roads, an increase of 100 km compared to the beginning of 2016. However, in 2016, the regular maintenance budget only reached 30 million VND/km, compared to the standard of only 25-30%. With that budget, it is only enough to cut trees, dredge ditches, clear bridges and culverts, paint lines, replace markers, signs, etc.

Discussing the shortcomings in traffic maintenance, Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky - Director of the Department of Transport shared: The current difficulty is in the context of increasing both the number and weight of vehicles, causing congestion at intersections during rush hours; the operation of oversized and overloaded vehicles affects the road traffic infrastructure. Meanwhile, the capital for management and maintenance of roads and inland waterways only meets 40 - 50% of the demand. Therefore, it is recommended that the Provincial People's Committee should soon arrange local traffic budget sources; supplement traffic career funding to have funds to repair damaged sections and construction items. In addition, localities need to have solutions to exploit contributions from organizations, businesses and people for this work.

Thu Huyen