At the time of project preparation, road transport, the dominant mode of transport in the state of West Bengal, had a primary network of 17,623 kilometers (km) consisting of 1,966 km of national highways, 3,388 km of state highways, 5,833 km of major district roads, and 6,436 km of other district roads. Of the primary network, 95% was paved. The state had a village and urban road network of 35,600 km, with 47% of the villages connected. Most of the primary network was constructed before the 1980s. According to the report and recommendation of the President, “the capacity constraint of the road network has been exacerbated by inadequate attention to, and funding for, network maintenance, which hastened the deterioration of the state road system”. Funding for road maintenance was less than 50% of the requirement in the last decade. There was a need for the funding gap for maintenance to be progressively reduced. Likewise, there was a need for the development of an effective road management system to maintain the existing road assets.
The project was designed to improve the two-lane standard in 370 km of NH-34 from Barasat–Raiganj (a corridor access component). Also, about 150 km of state highways from SH-1: Chakda–Bangaon and SH-10: Gajol–Hilli (subregional connectivity) were to be rehabilitated and improved to two−lane standard with asphalt concrete pavements and paved shoulders. The third output—rural access roads (RARs)—was improvement on roads, small bridges, and other rural infrastructure, which was to provide rural communities access to major roads.
This report validates the completion report’s assessment of the project. IED overall assessment: Less than successful.