December 26: The budget allocated for the construction of 128-meter-long flyover under the Nagdhunga-Naubise Tunnel Project is insufficient to compensate the land owners. Since a lump sum has not been allocated for the compensation to the displaced families in the multi-year project, the budget from other headings is being transferred to meet requirement for the compensation amount.  

Although a budget of Rs 1.14 billion is required for compensation, the project has so far received only Rs 300 million. The project requires an additional Rs 450 million budget within next week. For this, the Department of Roads is preparing to transfer the budget of other projects. Project Chief Naresh Man Shakya informed that Rs 40 million has already been paid to the displaced families. 

"We are managing the extra budget by transferring the budget of the Department of Roads," said Shakya,

The breakthrough of the main tunnel of the project was started in December last year while 2.5 km of tunnel has been dug in a year. Of the total 5.49 km long tunnel project, the length of the main tunnel is 2.86 km. Shakya said that Rs 2.5 billion budget has been spent in the current fiscal year, out of which Rs 1 billion has already been paid and a bill of Rs 1.5 billion has already been received.  

The government has allocated a total of Rs 9.67 billion budget for the project. It has been mentioned that the budget allocated by the government is only for the construction of the project and additional resources have to be sought for the compensation.