Kathmandu, September 15

The construction process of the strategic trade highways — prioritised by the government to connect major cities of the Tarai with the Indian border — continues to suffer perennial delays. Six years after the government took the initiative to construct such highways, the projects have achieved only one-third of physical progress till date.

According to the Department of Roads, construction of trade highways that link the major cities with the Indian border — Belahiya-Butwal, Rani-Biratnagar-Itahari, Jatahi-Janakpur-Dhalkebar, Birgunj-Pathalaiya and Mohana Bridge-Attariya — is underway.

Though the government had planned to connect the country to India and China through such trade highways within this fiscal, looking at the slow progress in the southern belt, it is certain the projects will miss their completion deadline

As per Bhimarjun Adhikari, director of North-South Transport Corridor Project Directorate, the project completion is in limbo because of budget limitations. “We are trying to get optimum results, but we have not been allocated sufficient budget, which has obstructed implementation of the projects,” he said.

Due to limited budget, the directorate was unable to tender the projects in a single phase. As per Adhikari, the authority is in the final stage of issuing tender of Belahiya-Butwal Road. “Due to limited resources we have to complete a single project through multiple tenders, because of which the project completion schedule had to be pushed back,” he clarified.

The government has spent Rs 7.3 billion on the projects of trade highways till date. Contrary to its initial plans to complete all five trade highways within the current fiscal year, the authority is now targeting to finalise the entire tender process of the five projects in this fiscal.

According to Adhikari, physical progress of Butwal-Belahiya road stood at about 61 per cent till the end of last fiscal year. However, the achievement of other roads is below average.

Moreover, the government is constructing three major highways to connect with China over three rivers — Kaligandaki, Koshi and Karnali. The Kathmandu-Rasuwagadhi-Kyirong road is also in the government’s priority.