April 23: The government had handed over the contract of the Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track project to the Nepalese Army in Shrawan 2074 with a mandate to complete it in four years (Shrawan 2078). However, even half of the work has not been completed after six years of the handover. On top of it, the government has extended the deadline till Chaitra 2083 even as the deadline for the project is about to expire.

It may be noted that the Nepalese Army had held a press conference on Bhadra 12, 2076 and announced that the expressway would be ready in three and a half years' time. However, the project is nowhere near completion and the contract has been extended again.

Since the project was handed over to the army, only 22 and a half per cent of physical progress has been made. The army has said that it is managing the project with the financial progress of 23.5 per cent.

Former Secretary Tulsi Prasad Sitaula argues that it is not appropriate to extend the deadline several times, when not even two-thirds of the work is completed.

"Nepalese Army only has the experience of opening tracks and blasting mountains," said Sitaula. 

Now it is necessary to review the project, he added.

Krishna Prasad Bhandari, the spokesperson of the Nepalese Army, said that since the deadline of the project is yet to expire, the army will work according to the goal of completing it as soon as possible. 

"When the work was interrupted due to Covid-19, the government extended the deadline for other projects, but did not extend the contract of the expressway," he said, "At that time, there was no work, the land dispute of Khokna remained the same, and the deadline was extended because a detailed project report (DPR) and environmental impact assessment were required.” 

The army is working on this project by dividing it into 11 packages. Out of that, only seven packages have been managed. The land dispute of Khokna, the starting point of the expressway, has not been resolved yet.

The government has not done an environmental impact assessment yet in some regions. The big and game-changer projects started in the country are still being delayed and the cost is increasing.

Despite the limited resources for infrastructure development, most of the projects initiated by the government are not completed on time, and there are instances where the cost has doubled.

The deadline for the expressway was extended for the first time after it took time to prepare and approve the DPR of this four-lane 72.5 km expressway. Since then, this sequence of contract extensions has been repeating. Contracts have already been awarded for the three tunnels, special-type bridges, etc., considered the complexity in the project. Two Chinese companies have already started work on the tunnel and the bridge. The project is estimated to cost Rs 175 billion, while not even Rs 40 billion have been spent.