Kathmandu, February 1:

A sum of Rs 67.47 billion is required to meet the targets set by Three Year Interim Plan (TYIP) for infrastructure development.

The budget available for three years in the road sector, water and sanitation sector, housing and urban development sector and local infrastructure is Rs 48.6 billion, while the budget required amounts to Rs 116.07 billion.

The TYIP is formulated to carry out development in a planned manner in three years, a bridge between 10th plan and the next full-fledged plan, as it appears that it will take about three years for an elected government to form after the preparation of a constitution after the constituent assembly.

Local infrastructure faces the highest amount of resource gap of Rs 35.9 billion.

The sector requires Rs 59.5 billion to construct rural roads, suspension bridges, carry out periodic maintenance and major maintenance of rural infrastructure.

Rs 23.5 billion is available for this sector.

Ki Hee Ryu, head of portfolio management of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said that over the period of years the amount being disbursed by the ADB has been going up.

Former government employee Varun Prasad Shrestha said a coordinated effort is required while building infrastructure.

Nearly 27 per cent of the total budget of Rs 511 billion, required to meet development expenditures of a Three-Year Interim Plan (TYIP) is expected to come from foreign aid, while internal revenue is expected to meet the 63.35 per cent. Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, vice-chairperson of the National Planning Commission (NPC), said at a consultation meeting organised with development partners today that the NPC is expecting donor’s support and coordination to achieve the goals of TYIP.

Responding to a query put forward by Matthew Kahane, United Nations Development Programme’s Country Representative to Nepal, on increasing labour migration, Dr Pokharel said an effort will be made to create conducive environment to generate investment in small industries, small power sectors and cooperatives.

Bella Bird, country director of the DFID, stressed that key constraints need to be identified and basic government system needs to be improved to implement the projects.