The Rural Roads Department plans to seal the last of the remaining 2,700 kilometres of gravel roads in the country within the next four years.
Director-general Pisak Jitviriyavasin said the department is responsible for a total of 47,000 kilometres of rural roads. Of these, 2,700 kilometres were still unsealed so the department set a goal to improve them all within four years.
For the fiscal year 2016, starting Oct 1, the department received a budget to improve 700km of gravel roads at an estimated cost of 6-7 million baht per kilometre.
The department expects total budget allocations for the other 2,000km during the fiscal years 2017-2019 of 12-14 billion baht.
About 35% of the rural roads still to be paved with asphalt or concrete were in the Northeast, 25% in the North and 20% each in the Central region and the South.