August 31: The government has invested Rs 349 billion in 24 national pride projects so far. Among the 24 projects, only the Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project has been completed. Even though the Melamchi Water Supply Project has been completed, uncertainty looms over it due to the damage caused by recent floods and landslides. Both these projects have been completed and inaugurated.

Apart from these two projects, all other projects have been under construction since a long time. Besides the Upper Tamakoshi and Melamchi projects, construction of Gautam Buddha International Airport and Pokhara Regional International Airport have made remarkable progress. Apart from these four projects, other projects have not shown encouraging result.

According to the 58th annual report of the Office of the Auditor General, a dozen of national pride projects have made less than 50 percent progress, both in terms of finance and physical infrastructure.

The progress of the West Seti Hydropower and Power Transmission Project started in 2011 is negligible. Even though the project has kicked off, with the estimated cost, no expenditure has been made so far.

Only two projects have made progress of 80 to 90 percent. These projects include Pashupati Area Development Trust and Lumbini Area Development Trust.  A total of Rs 551 billion and Rs 870 million have been spent on Lumbini Area Development Trust and Pashupati Area Development Trust respectively. Both of these projects are slated to be completed in the current fiscal year.

The progress report of the three corridors being constructed for easy access to the northern border is also not encouraging. The Karnali Corridor has made the progress of 20 percent by spending Rs 2.46 billion. With the expenditure of Rs 3.4 billion, the Koshi Corridor has made 19 percent progress. Similarly, construction of the Kali Gandaki Corridor has achieved progress of 22 percent with the expenditure of Rs 6.36 billion.

The overhead cost and time have been increasing as the projects had started decades ago and have not been completed on time. The issue of running railway and metro rail has become popular. However, the progress of railway and metro development projects is only 2.6 percent while Rs 19.68 billion has been spent out of an estimated cost of Rs 955 billion.

The progress of three big irrigation projects Rani Jamra Kulariya, Sikta and Babai Irrigation is also slow. Starting from 2011, the progress of Rani Jamara, Sikta and Babai irrigation projects have reached 48 percent, 59 percent and 52 percent respectively.

The report of the Auditor General for 2019/20 states that the projects could not be completed on time due to lack of implementation capacity, poor contract management, delay in land acquisition, lack of coordination, detailed feasibility study and delay in preparation of project structure.

There is no example of national pride project being completed on stipulated time in the country. Economist Suman Sharma argues that the projects would provide a good outcome only if it is completed on time. Sharma said that the people will benefit but it will not yield any financial return. "To reap the benefits mentioned in the feasibility study, projects need to be completed on time," he said.  

Govinda Pokhrel, former Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission said that the national pride projects have been infamous for not yielding good results and adding extra cost. 

“Due to lack of timely completion of the projects, their return is low," Pokhrel said. To minimize this, the government needs to arrange separate budgets, laws and human resources for national pride projects.