Economics Circle was established in 1976 headed by a Senior Economist (of Superintending Engineer Rank). The aim of creating this Circle was to strengthen the economic capabilities of the then RHD Planning and Development Wing. The Circle now plays a key role in providing data for maintenance planning through the HDM system.

The objectives of the Economics Circle is to contribute to the overall strategy of the Planning and Maintenance Wing by:

Ensuring that investment decisions and forecasts made by RHD are economically sound through the provision of required economic data and analysis.

a) To provide annual road user costs data (VOC, TTC & ACC) for use in HDM and other economic analysis.

b) To enhance the quality of PPs/PCPs with socio-economic parameters.

c) To provide and maintain socio-economic database for project evaluation in the transport sector.

d) To provide support services to MoC, MoF, RHD, Planning Commission and Donor Agencies/Countries on socio-economic matters relating to road and road transport development.

The Economics Circle is headed by a Senior Economist (hereby re-designated as Chief Transport Economist) supported by 3 Economists (hereby re-designated as Executive Transport Economist) who are each in charge of Division, namely:

a) Road User Costs Division

b) Economic Feasibility Study Division

c) Economic Policy and Planning Division

The number of personnel in the Circle are shown in the attached table. It shows the total proposed number of personnel in the Circle to be 36 of which 35 are currently sanctioned posts. There are however some rearrangements made in the number of staff in individual posts and in some cases re-designation is suggested. The total proposed number of personnel of the Circle consist of 10 Class I, 0 Class II, 18 Class III and 8 class IV staff.

Certain officers in the Economics Circle are to be designated as specialists. Specialist posts for engineers, or non-engineers, with specialist qualifications are shown together with the equivalent engineering grade thus, Exec. Transport Economist (EE*).

Out of the existing 6 Class I posts of Assistant Engineer level (Research officer –2, Statistician-1, Tabulation Statistician-2,Traffic Survey Officer-1) 2 will be upgraded and re-designated as Sub-Divisional Transport Economist (STE) and other 4 will be re-designated as Assistant Transport Economist (ATE).

In order to ensure that the officers in this circle are of comparable status and receive similar benefits to equivalent engineering posts under the Department, some changes in the designations are suggested. e.g. Chief Transport Economist (CTE) in place of Senior Economist, Executive Transport Economist (ETE) in place of Economist, Sub-Divisional Transport Economist (STE) and Assistant Transport Economist (ATE) in place of the remaining 6 Class I post designations. The pay-scale of CTE, ETE and STE will be equivalent to the pay-scale of a SE, EE and SDE respectively, while pay-scale of an ATE will be equivalent to that of an AE as before.

a) To carry out economic feasibility studies of road projects.

b) To carry out economic feasibility studies of bridge projects.

c) To update road user costs (VOC, TTC & ACC) annually.

d) To undertake traffic origin-destination surveys, traffic count surveys and socio-economic surveys relating to projects under study and VOC, TTC and ACC surveys for updating Road User Costs (RUC) report.

e) To create socio-economic database on the basis of primary and secondary data.

f) To make reviews of and comments on the economic parts of study reports prepared by consultants and other agencies.

g) To prepare specialised reports relating to road and road transport development.

The budget for the Economics Circle is shown on the attached table. The budget table shows both the annual operation and maintenance costs (including the costs of undertaking economic studies and surveys) and the capital costs of purchasing new and replacing old equipment. As not all equipment will be purchased or replaced immediately the capital cost has been annualised depending on the average life of the various items of equipment. The costs shown exclude the cost of personnel who are paid for from other sources.

On this basis the annual recurring cost for the Circle is Taka 74.46 lacs and the capital cost on an annualised basis is Taka 26.50 lacs. Giving a total cost of Taka 100.96 lacs per annum. Of this total amount, Taka 37.50 lacs is to cover the costs of economic studies carried out by local Consultants.

The Economics Circle requires resources for Head Quarters operations and to enable the Circle to undertake necessary surveys and economic studies etc. using both the Circles’ own resources and consultants.

The resources required are shown in the table below: