Dili – Manatuto road section
project is one of the current national road improvement projects in
Timor-Leste. The government of
Timor-Leste has been focusing on national road network improvement. The core
network comprises 1,400 km of national roads connecting the capital, Dili, and
13 municipalities. Dili – Manatuto is the first prioritized road sections to
link the entire National Road Number 1 (Dili-Com). The rest
of the sections are on-going such as Manatuto – Baucau, Baucau – Lautém, and
soon for Lautém – Com.
National road improvement projects
have been mainly financed by the international Development Banks operating in
Timor-Leste. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), The World Bank,
Asia Development Bank (ADB) have been financing the national road projects
since 2011. JICA introduced the lowest interest loan
offer to the government of Timor-Leste to finance Dili – Baucau section. The
government took the offer and finally implemented Dili – Manatuto section. It
is no wonder that the presence of the development banks in Timor-Leste is important. Similar
to nearly every country in the world, Timor-Leste cannot afford to finance its
entire development singly. Thus, the split of financing is crucial, but there
is no free lunch. Timor-Leste has to pay back the loans when in due course.
The Indonesian left existing road condition was
deteriorating due to wear out factor, natural as well as inexistent maintenance
effort from the government after Independence in 1999. Narrow and bumpy roadway,
inadequate or dysfunctional drainage, and lack of road safety apparatus have now
changed. The 49 km long road from Dili – Manatuto has completely improved. The
project was financed with $54 million JICA loan.
Even though the project has been
finally completed and inaugurated in 26 August 2022, it was not successful in
terms of the planned schedule. I remember the ground breaking launch was in
2016. The project was supposed to be a 2-year long work. However, it finally got
6 years to complete. This is not a good project management example because the
delay surpassed much more than the normal tolerance. I realized that there is a
need for infrastructure project management resource improvement. As the
infrastructure development growth increases, there is a need to employ competent
individuals and improve stronger institutional system. By this, the future implementation
of road projects can be efficient and effective.
The impact the
road provides will be enormous and long term. The travel time from Dili to the
easter parts will significantly cut. People will have safer travel, and more
comfortably. The agricultural activities may grow. The Laleia , and
Manatuto area, narrowly speaking, where the JICA irrigation project is developed, rice
and other agricultural production will have efficient distribution because of
the easy accessibility to the market.
The road completion leaves more jobs to do actually. The
maintenance is so important afterwards. As the construction quality is not
perfect in anyway, any defects after the construction should be paid attention
to. If there is any defect found, the relevant ministry should take action immediately.
The periodic maintenance work should be consistently performed. In the era of the
intensifying climate change impact where the erratic weather and rain intensity
increases, it is important to keep an eye to the road in terms of maintenance and
other works that can prevent from substantial damage due to storm water. This is the
continuous work that needs to be done. Otherwise, Timor-Leste will pay back the
loans even before the road is fully utilized.
**I Hope this gives you an inspiration.
