CHITWAN: The total cost of the Narayanghadh-Muglin road section has gone up against the estimated cost. The cost of road construction increased by Rs 315 million due to extra responsibilities given ahead of the project completion.

Acting Chief of the Narayangadh-Muglin Road Project Govinda Khanal said that the contractor was awarded the tender bid in a total of Rs 2.88 billion but the entire expenditure is likely to cross Rs 3.2 billion with the rise in construction costs. Khanal said that total cost of the project increased as construction period was extended by a year.

Likewise, tender was announced in the estimation of two years before the commencement of the construction works and some highly-essential activities were added, leading to cost increment. Cutting the walls, clearing landslides debris, constructing the walls, construction of high quality drains (which was not included in the tender) and extending the blacktopped area contributed to rise in total cost, it is said.

However, the physical progress of the project has declined despite the increase in fiscal progress. So far, only 80 per cent of construction work is over. Out of 33.2 kms, 30 kms of the road section has been blacktopped so far.