Kathmandu, August 3

The ongoing Swiss-funded Trail Bridge and Local Roads Bridge programmes jointly held the steering committee meeting in Kathmandu today to assess the achievements of the fiscal 2017-18.

The meeting also discussed the plan ahead in the federal set-up for the implementation of both programmes in the fiscal 2018-19. According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, a total of 447 trail bridges were constructed across the country in 2017-18. To date, 108 out of 137 tuins have been replaced by trail bridges. With this, more than 7,500 trail bridges have been built within the past 50 years in Nepal. Around one million people use trail bridges daily.

The government has prepared a three-year plan to complete all 2,400 additional trail bridges that are further required so that people do not need to take a detour of more than one hour. For this, the committee has endorsed the plan to construct 600 trail bridges with the budget of Rs 3.114 billion allocated for the fiscal 2018-19. Most of these bridges will be built through the local and provincial governments, the MoFAGA.

During the meeting, the Government of Switzerland handed over 25 motorable bridges that were completed over the last year in Provinces 1 and 3 to the Government of Nepal. In 2017-18, a total of 88 bridges were also constructed across the country on local road networks. Till now, a total of 300 motorable bridges were constructed, which make over 1,500 km of roads accessible all year round.

The meeting also endorsed a decision to build 150 more motorable bridges in 2018-19. A budget of Rs 2.07 billion has been allocated for this work, the release stated.

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