Currently, the expansion and upgrading of highways has been started all over the country. Even after a long time has passed since the expansion of some highways, the construction work has not been able to accelerate. Even after extending the deadline several times, no progress has been made on such roads. In some cases, due to lack of adequate budget, no progress has been made in road construction.

Passengers and drivers are forced to bear the brunt of the lack of expansion and upgrading even after the contract has been in place for years. Why is the contracted road infrastructure work not completed on time, who is responsible for the construction delay? Bimal Khatiwada of Kantipur spoke with the director general of the road department Ramhari Pokharel :

Currently, road expansion and upgrading works are being done all over the country, but why has the progress not been as expected?

Narayangadh-Butwal road construction has started to expand now. Earlier there was a lot of problem on this road. Work is being done to build a two-lane road by June. The budget distribution was not good in projects that started construction earlier. There was a budget where it was not spent, and there was no budget where it was spent. There was a problem with the money transfer . The budget allocated for projects of national pride was made non-transferable to other projects. Due to the fact that the project has to pay the payment obligations of the past and cannot operate the project in the current financial year, the road project under construction has not progressed as expected. Now many things have been simplified. The construction of the project is also being delayed due to problems such as felling of trees and electric poles in the construction area. 

Why are most of the contracts not completed on time even if they are extended several times?  There are many reasons why a

project is not completed on time . Budget allocation is a major problem. Due to lack of sufficient budget, the project has not been completed on time . Secondly, the availability of construction materials at the local level is low. Due to the performance of the builders, there is no progress in the project as expected. The speed of work slows down when the same construction company takes many contracts . When a single company takes on many contracts, it does not have enough machines . There is also a problem in the joint contract. Only construction professionals who are considered weak in the joint contract will work . As a result, there is a problem of not progressing in the work . Similarly, the project has not been gaining momentum due to the disputes at the local level from time to time. Some builders have not worked even with sufficient budget.  In the

project, there seems to be more problems when the contract is not prepared, why is the contract done in haste?

If 100 percent preparation is to be done in the road project, the contract should be done separately. Problems often occur only after the construction work is done. The problems of water pipes and sewers will be known only after the construction work starts. Therefore, the contract may be awarded after completion of some percentage of preparatory work, but the contract for road infrastructure cannot be awarded after completion of 100% preparatory work.     There is little record of timely completion of

contracted projects. Who is most responsible for project delays ? 

Contracts are called after giving enough time . All agencies are responsible for project delays . Due to the budget, the project is being delayed . There is also a delay from the builders . There may also be delays from the contracting authority . Due to the lack of coordination between ministries, departments and agencies, there are delays in road projects.