Study of effectiveness of road fund as a solution for maintenance problem in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Transportation makes a key contribution to the economic and social development in every country. Among other transportation means roads play a considerable role with the lack of other means like rails, ships and airlines. Well-conditioned roads have many tangible and intangible benefits to all road users. Well-planned maintenance programme is an essential in this regard. There are many causes for not having effective sustainable road maintenance practices. Those are related to management, technology and finance. Among them, inadequate financing is a critical problem. Many countries depend on country’s general budget even though it is not adequate. Time to time individual countries and international lending agencies have introduced off-budget financing methods. Road Funds concept was introduced by the World Bank as an off-budget method. In this thesis main purpose is to analyze effectiveness of Second Generation Road Fund and to propose whether it is desirable solution for Sri Lanka road maintenance problem. The Road Funds in developed countries, middleincome countries and developing countries were evaluated separately and final conclusion was drawn according to evaluation results