September 7: The government spent Rs 13 billion in the last Fiscal Year 2076/77 for the construction of motorable bridges across the country. The Department of Roads spent three times more budget than the allocated budget in the last fiscal year to design 1500 new bridges which are currently under construction.

The government had initially allocated Rs 4 billion for bridges in the annual budget but it was later increased to Rs 13 billion.

Although the department had set a target of completing 300 bridges last year, the target could not be achieved. According to the department, the target was not completed due to the lockdown during the peak season for construction. However, the department claims that 70 percent progress has been made in the bridge construction as compared to other development projects.

Dipak Kumar Bhattarai, chief of the bridge division under the Department of Roads, says that despite the risk of coronavirus and other complications, great achievement has been made in the construction of bridges.

The construction entrepreneurs had been expressing their intention to build the bridges before the onset of rainy season. Due to this, 80 bridges under construction have been completed during the lockdown from March to June. Bhattarai also informed that the construction of 210 bridges was completed last year.

“If we had stopped working during the lockdown, there would be huge loss if the under construction bridges hadn’t been completed,” he said, adding, “The bridges that were supposed to be built before the rainy season and were in a state of great risk were selected and built."