PM Oli Urges Ministry to Fastrack National Pride Road Projects

Recently, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli directed the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT) to complete the three ‘national pride projects’ within four years.

According to MoPIT Minister Raghubir Mahaseth, PM Oli asked the Ministry during its first quarter review meeting to complete the projects within the Government’s tenure, including:

• Pushpalal Mid-Hill Highway – 1,776 km
• Postal Highway – 1,792.42 km
• Madan Bhandari Highway – 1,200 km

Government Progress In National Pride Road Projects
So far, the Ministry has constructed 86 km dirt roads, 162 km of graveled roads, blacktopped 99 km roads and constructed of 25 bridges as part of the projects.

Presently, the Department of Roads (DoR) has completed the following works along the aforementioned projects:

• Pushpalal Mid-Hill Highway: Completed the construction of 30 km graveled roads and 14 bridges along this highway. Additionally, roads as long as 14 kms have been blacktopped along the stretch.
• Postal Highway: Completed the construction of 20 km graveled roads and 75 bridges along this highway, besides blacktopping 32 km roads. At present, 84 bridges are under construction along this highway.
• Madan Bhandari Highway: The Department has constructed 69 km of graveled roads and 85 km of dirt roads along the highway. Currently, the Dharan-Chatara section of this highway is being blacktopped

According to Mahaseth, the 112 km long Narayanghat-Butwal road section will be constructed as a four-lane fast track project. He also said that the tender for the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded project is finalized and construction will begin soon.

Overall Progress So Far

• As per the first quarter review, 98.4 percent work has been done in 23 projects which were termed ‘Excellent’
• 64.11 percent of the work has been categorized as ‘Good’
• 41.7 percent of works have been termed ‘Unsatisfactory’
• 47 various other projects whose works that have not started, have been classified ‘Worst’

Railway-Related Projects
MoPIT has informed that the Department of Railways (DoR) compiled a detailed project report for the 638 km-long Kakarbhitta-Bardibas-Simara-Tamsariya-Butwal section of the electrified railway project.

Similarly, 95 percent of the DPR works has been completed for the 409 km long Butwal-Gaddachauki section of the same project.