The tunnel, which will be around 3 km long, is aimed at reducing traffic congestion on the Nagdhunga-Naubise road section of the Tribhuvan Highway. Similarly, the feasibility studies for railway links will be done with a plan to construct a railway connecting India and China through Nepal
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The MoPPW has proposed a budget of Rs 45 billion for the next fiscal year to the Finance Ministry. It will focus on road connectivity in the next fiscal and has asked for Rs 33 billion for the road sector. The government’s policies and programmes unveiled on Sunday have also stated that road building would be accelerated with an emphasis on fostering trade, tourism and economic activities in the country.
Construction of roads to district headquarters which do not have a motorable road link and completing the track opening of the Mid-Hills Highway and the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track road are among the projects high on the ministry’s list.
The budget sought by the ministry has exceeded the ceiling set by the National Planning Commission (NPC) by Rs 4 billion. Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, joint secretary at the ministry, said the ceiling fixed by the government was not adequate to carry out infrastructure development work, and that they had proposed an additional Rs 4 billion in the new budget.
“Besides other major ongoing projects, the ministry has decided to give extra priority to regional roads and roads having tourism importance,” he added. The ministry is also working on a guideline for tourism roads. The government had allocated Rs 37.19 billion for the MoPPW with a focus on big ongoing road projects such as the Mid-Hills Highway, the Fast Track and North-South roads for the current fiscal year. However, no major project has been able to make progress as anticipated.
“We have been facing problems in the track opening work of the Mid-Hills Highway in Rukum, Jajarkot and Dailekh due to land compensation disputes and tree felling issues,” said an official at the MoPPW. The official added that work on the Fast Track too had not progressed because of land compensation issues and the directive of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee to involve domestic companies in the project.
Despite giving high priority to the Fast Track project, the Nepal Army has completed track opening of only 30 km of the total length of 76 km. According to the MoPPW, if the land acquisition process gets resolved early, the rest of the track can be opened within two months.
A high level committee has been formed to complete the acquisition of land along the Fast Track road within six months. However, the committee has not finished the task of acquiring land, particularly from people who had long been staying on government-owned land.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the government will be allocating Rs 1.5 billion for the Fast Track road and Rs 1.75 billion for the Mid-Hills Highway for the next fiscal year. The government had allocated Rs 1.21 billion for widening and completing the track opening of the Mid-Hills Highway and Rs. 680 million for opening the track of the Fast Track road in the current budget.
Work on the postal road in the Tarai and the North-South Highways will also be intensified in the next fiscal year. Following the cabinet’s decision to set up a separate Railway Department for the development of railways in the country, the ministry has sought an increment in the budget for railways. Rs 300 million was allocated for railway development in the current fiscal year’s budget.
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