Kathmandu, August 7

The details of the projects that are to be executed under compact programme of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the United States government are going to be unveiled on Thursday.

The MCC officials informed that they also plan to unveil the detailed plans and timeframe to complete the projects under the programme tomorrow.

The MCC programme has identified a number of projects under two headings — high voltage transmission lines and road maintenance.

Khadga Bahadur Bisht, executive director of Millennium Challenge Account Nepal (MCA-Nepal), said that works related to environmental impact assessment (EIA), detailed feasibility study (DFS) and detailed project report (DPR) of the identified transmission line projects under the programme were ongoing.

“We have prepared a detailed framework for execution of the projects and with the collaboration of the governmental agencies, we will complete them on time,” Bisht said, refusing to elaborate more.

He, however, informed that the alignment for the road maintenance projects had already been determined.

Earlier, the government and MCC had identified 400 kVA high voltage transmission lines, including Lapsifedi-Damauli, Galchi-Hetauda, Damauli-Sunwal-India border as projects to be executed under the MCC programme.

Likewise, upgradation works of different road projects including Mechi Highway, Koshi Highway, Sagarmatha Highway, Tribhuvan Rajpath and Amelia-Tulsipur section will also be carried out under the MCC.

In September last year, Caroline T Nguyen, managing director for Europe, Asia, Pacific and Latin America of MCC, while visiting Nepal, had said the projects are expected to kick off from September this year. Back then she had also said that more time was needed to complete the groundwork for the execution of the projects as the five-year countdown starts once the implementation process begins.

The grant assistance worth $500 million under the compact programme will be mobilised for execution of said projects in energy and road (transportation), namely, electricity transmission project (ETP) and road maintenance project (RMP). The projects must be executed within five years, if not, MCC will withdraw the assistance.