Kathmandu, July 14 The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) has said that the Central Fruit and Flower Market in Chobhar will be ready by next year. As 80 per cent of infrastructural work of the project has been completed so far, the MoALD has said that the market will start operating by next year. The Chobhar fruit and flower market is one of the projects of the ministry to expand agriculture centres across the country. Despite a few hurdles in the past few months construction work at the market is going on smoothly at present and it will be ready by next year, said Tej Bahadur Subedi, spokesperson for MoALD. “Construction of the market buildings is in final phase and other utility works are also being completed gradually,” he said. “By 2020, market will be ready.” Earlier, the construction of the market had been affected due to shortage of construction materials while the contractor has also been blamed for the delay in the market construction. Giving an excuse of expensive construction materials the contractor had delayed the construction. Meanwhile, the project has also been affected due to the Ring Road widening project, as per the MoALD. Considering the work pace of the project it will get completed within the targeted deadline this time, Subedi said. Prior to this, the project deadline was set for December 2017. However, the contractor failed to complete the project on time and the deadline was extended to May 2018. The first extended deadline was also missed and the ministry again extended the deadline for the end of 2019. As per Subedi, around Rs 180 million has been allocated for the project in the next fiscal. The market is being built with a total investment of Rs 370 million under the supervision of the Kalimati Fruits and Vegetables Market Development Board. The Project for Agriculture Commercialisation and Trade (PACT) under the MoALD is implementing the project. The market is spread across 23 ropanis of land and will include two five-storied buildings for fruits and one three-storied building for flowers. The market is being built to expand and regulate the domestic fruit and flower market. The market will have more than 80 stalls which will sell only fruits and flowers. Besides the market in Chobhar, the MoALD is also building such agricultural centres in Morang, Butwal, Jhapa and Dhanusha.