Kathmandu, Feb. 20
The government has no
plan to immediately add any new development and infrastructure projects in the list
of ‘national pride projects’.
Given the sluggish
progress and woeful state of the ongoing pride projects, the Ministry of
Finance and National Planning Commission are not in the favour of extending the
list any time soon.
"There is no
intention or discussion to add pride projects. The government is now focused to
complete the ongoing projects rather than adding up new ones," said Min
Bahadur Shahi, member and spokesperson of the NPC.
Dr. Baburam Bhattarai-led
government about nine years ago had announced 17 large infrastructure projects
as ‘national pride projects’ in order to provide them special treatment in
terms of financial, technical and policy facilitation. The list now has 25
projects with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) being the latest one.
However, not a single project tagged as 'pride' is
completed yet. It's not that the projects are not completed in the past nine
years after the government announcement but some of the projects are in the
execution process for more than two decades. To take an example, it's been
about 22 years since the Melamchi Water Supply Project was announced and 19
years since it went into execution.
Likewise, Sikta Irrigation Project is in development
process for the past 19 years and its cost estimate has doubled to Rs. 25.2
billion from the initial Rs. 12.8 billion. Babai Irrigation
Project is another sick project
that is running in 32 years since its initiation and its cost has gone up to
Rs. 18.9 billion from Rs. 2.8 billion.
According to Shahi, some of the
projects included in the pride list had problems right from their
conceptualisation.
Three to be completed this year
However, the NPC said that at least
three pride projects – Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project, Gautam Buddha
International Airport in Bhairahawa and Melamchi - would be completed by the
end of this fiscal year 2020/21.
Tamakoshi is in the final phase of
adjustment and at least one turbine will come into operation by the end of this
year while GBIA is undergoing some remaining works which were affected due to
the supply side constraints during the coronavirus lockdown, said NPC
spokesperson Shahi.
Melamchi was mired in controversy
and uncertainty when its Italian contractor CMC left the project in the middle
and fled the country in December 2018.
He said that many projects would be
completed within next two years. "Airports in Bhairahawa and Pokhara,
Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track, Mid-Hill Highway and North-South Corridors are
moving forward smoothly at satisfactory speed," said shahi.
Projects of physical infrastructure
like energy, road, rail, irrigation, water supply, and tourism and forests are
included in the pride list. The government has allocated Rs. 92.6 billion to
these projects for this year but only 15.19 per cent (Rs. 13.9 billion) is
utilised in the first six months.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 21 February 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment