Mizoram Rejects World Bank Roads Report

We did better: Mizo PWD

Aizawl, Dec 23 : Mizoram has rejected the World Bank’s assessment of the state roads project being “moderately satisfactory”, saying it was “highly satisfactory”.

The bank, which had funded the project, in its recent report on the project’s implementation completion and results, termed its outcome as “moderately satisfactory”. The total amount disbursed for the project on June 1, 2011, was $103.15 million.

The report appreciated the government’s high level of commitment towards project design, preparation and implementation but said the state did not provide adequate resources recommended in the masterplan for maintenance of road network, including the project roads. This has put a question mark on medium to long-term sustainability of the project assets.

The bank stated that Mizoram, being the end beneficiary, could have taken more advantage of the project. But it did not and this resulted in some key institutional strengthening activities not reaching fruition. In particular, it pointed to the state’s failure to create a fund for maintenance of roads.

Reacting to the bank’s report, the Mizoram PWD said this was the state’s first World Bank project and the largest implemented by it and that it had no prior experience in this line.

“Our performance, lessons learnt and the benefits for the organisation in the fields of procurement, financial management, institution development and road safety are much better than it was expected,” the PWD observed.

It said only 40 days were left before project closure when the second additional financing of $13 million was approved. It said the department had fully utilised the fund for successful completion of the project in record time, which showed that it had become more experienced to manage the project towards the end.

This gave it “confidence to skilfully manage the second World Bank project,” it added.

Mizoram said the problems faced during construction in remote areas were skillfully managed and solved by a small team constituted for implementation of the project and that its work was worthy of being considered “highly satisfactory”.

The government’s views have been appended in the bank’s report.