LABOUR BASED TECHNOLOGY FOR RURAL ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Abstract

The role of roads in an overall development of a country is well recognised. In a country like India, where about three - fourth of the population lives in rural areas, the role of rural roads assumes a greater significance. Considering the size of the country, the task of providing links to each and every village is colossal requiring huge funds. It is estimated that about 56 prcent of the total villages are still required to be connected with all-weather road access for which some 1.3 million kms of roads costing over Rs.3,30,000 million will have to be constructed. Like any other developing country, India has limited financial resources and rising unemployment especially in rural areas. However, the country abounds in naturally occuring materials, which if harnessed scientifically and systematically with the use of cheap local labour, can help tangibly in meeting this challenge, resulting in substantial reduction in the cost of construction as well as creation of employment opportunities. In this thesis, an attempt has been made to explore the possibility of using labour-based technology at differnt stages of rural road construction. Productivity and cost data for important activities has been given for labour, animals and equipment and for intermediate methods using combination of these three along with a mention of possible ways of increasing productivities has been investigated, during the study. Productivity charts have also been developed for the earthwork operation. 'Costs of alternative methods for selected tasks have been compared, at present wage rates, and the concept of a 'break-even' wage is discussed, with particular regard to earthworks, aggregate production and haulage of road materials. The study concludes with a process to help in decision making for the chioce of labour based technologies for different stages of the rural road construction.