March 10: Road projects under the National Pride Projects have sought for additional Rs 13 billion stating that the allocated budget is insufficient. Three highway projects – the Postal highway, Mid-hill Highway and Madan Bhandari Highway - have sought for additional budget.

Stating that the allocated budget for the current fiscal year is insufficient, Madan Bhandari Highway Project has sought for Rs 5 billon additional budget, while Mid-hill Highway Project and Postal Highway Project have asked for additional budget of Rs 4 billion each. These projects are the highly prioritized road projects of the government. In the current fiscal year, the government had cut down the budget of these big projects massively.

A total of Rs 1.50 billion has been spent on Madan Bhandari Highway so far. The project has blacktopped additional 30 km of road by the end of Magh (mid-February). The project had received budget of Rs 3.7 billion for this fiscal year which has been spent in blacktopping of the roads and building other infrastructure.

The project has sought additional budget to build 49 bridges. “The budget is required as soon as the contractor begins the work,” said Umesh Bindu Shrestha, director of the project. A few days ago, Prime Minister KP Oli had inaugurated 31 bridges to be built along the highway.

The Postal Highway which has added 117 km of blacktopped road in the current fiscal year, has also sought for additional budget. It has spent Rs 4.15 billion out of the allocated budget of Rs 7.1 billion. “Rs 4 billion more is required for blacktopping and laying gravel and building other infrastructure,” informed the Project Director Rohit Kumar Bisural. “If the additional budget is not released, it will affect the payment to the contractor and will ultimately delay the progress of the project,” he added.

Midhill highway is also experiencing budget crunch for the infrastructures that are under construction. This project had sought budget of Rs12 billion but the government had released only Rs 8.27 billion in the current fiscal year.

Other national pride projects – Fast Track Road project and North-South Corridor are however focused to spend the allocated budget. Shiva Prasad Nepal, director of the North-South Corridor said the allocated budget would be enough for the current fiscal year.

Extreme geography and difficulty in transporting construction materials have delayed the blacktopping of the road under this project. Under the Kaligandaki Corridor, only 25 km of blacktopped roads will be completed this year, according to Nepal.

Nepal Army will be handed over the contract to build 16 km road connecting Sallisalla of Humla to Simikot under the Karnali Corridor Project. The Department of Roads has sent the letter to the Ministry of Defense seeking for its approval. This 16 km section consists of rugged mountainous terrains for which the expertise of the Nepalese Army is best suited to open the road tracks.

The Nepalese Army, which has been assigned to construct the Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track, has been returning the allocated budget for failing to spend it. Though it has expressed commitment to spend the budget this year, NA will fail to spend it if the signing of contracts for bridges and tunnel doesn’t succeed. The Nepalese Army says Rs 1.40 billion has been spent out of the allocated budget of Rs 8.93 billion.