Damaru Lal Bhandari

Kathmandu, February 21:

The turn of events following the February 1 royal proclamation could be said to have kick-started development activities, with offices inviting tenders to implement various projects. However, as office-bearers of the Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal (FECAN) say the spurt is evident in projects which have to do with zonal or district level development.

“We, too, have seen renewal of development activities, but big projects are yet to be taken up,” said FECAN Secretary Vijay Babu Malla when asked to comment on the latest series of advertisements related to tenders and bids in certain national dailies.

“The latest spurt can be interpreted as a bid to wake up development administration out of slumber. The activities appear to have been directed as part of good governance drive,” Malla said, adding that much of the jobs for which the tenders are being called recently can be said to have been nearly shelved in the past. He hastened on to add that the jobs which are now being taken up to be executed by calling tenders and bids at short notices could be said to have not figured at the top of the agenda and thus fallen victim of procrastination while successive governments were in power.

Meanwhile, he also said that bigger cousins could still be left to wait out until the authorities give a go-ahead to projects which are funded under assistance from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and International Development Agency, among others. These agencies have committed to fund various road projects which have not been taken up for implementation yet.

“No one in the construction sector knows what will be taken up until funding commitments are made public,” Malla further said, adding “development activities stood curtailed owing to deflection of budget towards security consideration.”

However, FECAN president Sukunta Lal Hirachan denied that the big time contractors were in for tough time “all this while.” “It would be misleading to say that bigger firms have no work to do. It is, however, true that there are relatively less contracts to bid for,” Hirachan said. Projects like Melamchi road and work related to road maintenance in the eastern part of the country fall under big project bracket, with money involved adding up to over 100 crores and more.

“Of course those who say there is less job to bid for are right,” Hirachan conceded, adding “small firms were in for welcome relief now.”

It may be said that the number of construction firms which are involved in development activities year in year out is over 14,000 “not all of which have got any opportunity to work since quite sometime.”