Indian Minister Gen VK Singh to attend Nepal Infrastructure Summit

Kathmandu, Aug. 26

General Vijay Kumar Singh, Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, would be the guest of honor at the upcoming Nepal Infrastructure Summit to be organised by Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) and Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT) on September 8-9.

CNI President Vishnu Kumar Agrawal met Gen V K Singh at the Ministry in New Delhi the other day and extended the invitation, CNI said in a statement. Official invitation from the MoPIT has already been forwarded.

"Nepal has been facing serious infrastructure problems which has led to high cost of doing business and has eroded the competitiveness of industries in Nepal. This year’s summit has the theme ‘Infrastructure for Growth’," read the statement.

Without a proper infrastructure, overall economic growth cannot be achieved. India has made large strides in infrastructure development over the last decade.

The CNI said that one of landmarks infrastructure development initiative in India is the PM Gati Shakti - National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity, essentially a digital platform to bring 16 ministries including railways and roadways together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.

The multi-modal connectivity facilitates the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and also reduce travel time for people. PM Gati Shakti will incorporate the infrastructure schemes of various Ministries and State Governments like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc. Economic Zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters and agri zones will be covered to improve connectivity and make Indian businesses more competitive.

A major bottleneck in infrastructure development in Nepal is the lack of coordination between different departments, for example, once a road was constructed, other agencies dug up the constructed road again for activities like laying of underground cables, sewage pipes etc.

For developing a hydropower project, approvals are required from seven ministries, 23 departments and 36 acts have to be followed, CNI informed.

"The logistics cost in Nepal is one of the highest in the region, with road transport being the primary source of logistics. Railways, waterways and the like are yet to take shape and even the cost of running vehicles on the road is high," it maintained.

Nepal has also adopted Public Private Partnership concept for speedy development in road, transport and other infrastructure sectors. The Indian success story is expected to inspire the Nepali policy makers and entrepreneurs to think differently towards infrastructure development.

The Infrastructure Summit 2022 is expected to draw more than 1000 delegates from more than 25 countries.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 27 August 2022.