A decade and a half after the construction of the New City Project began, only 34 kilometers of blacktop roads have been constructed under this project. Its construction was started by selecting 10 cities to be connected by the Pushpalal (Mid-Hill) Highway. Now, the number of cities has been increased to 54. The project has not been able to gain momentum due to lack of budget. 

According to the Public Economic Survey on Wednesday, 51 km of roads have been paved under the New City Project by Falgun 2082. 168 km of sewers and drains have been constructed. 

Initially, the government estimated that it would take 3.5 trillion rupees to build 10 cities in 20 years. So far, 8.29 billion rupees have been spent on 10 cities. Suman Salike, Project Director of the New City Project Coordination Office, said that progress in the cities where work has started is slow due to the budget. ‘Although the project was announced earlier, there has been a delay in implementation,’ he said. ‘It has been 10 years since the budget came and the work started.’ 

Earlier, only the project was planned and the work had not started, so the impact is now being seen, says Salike. ‘The budget has started to come from the financial year 2071/072,’ he said. ‘Before that, there was a project, but there was no budget.’ He said that in the budget for the coming fiscal year, 12 cities along the Mid-Hill Highway will be prioritized for work. ‘We are working to manage the budget for 12 projects without allocating budget to all the projects and bring good results within a few years,’ he said. 

The Road Department has constructed 456 kilometers of blacktop roads till Falgun of the current fiscal year. According to the economic survey, a total of 20,456 kilometers of roads have been blacktopped till Falgun 2082. Until the same period last year, 19,163 kilometers of roads were blacktopped. 

Until Falgun of the current fiscal year, 7,602 kilometers of gravel and 8,748 kilometers of unpaved roads have been constructed. Accordingly, the length of the road has reached 36,806 km. While the length of the road including 20,043 km of blacktop, 7,511 km of gravel and 8,672 km of unpaved roads was 36,226 km by Asad 2082. 76 km of unpaved roads (new roads) have been constructed by Falgun. During this period, periodic maintenance of 91 km of gravel, 63.3 km of roads and construction of 102 bridges have been completed. 

Director General of the Roads Department, Vijay Jaisi, said that the work of blacktop roads has been affected since a few months of the current fiscal year. ‘Due to the ongoing conflict in West Asia, the price of bitumen has increased and there is a shortage in the market, so the blacktop work has not been done. It has only been done in some places,’ he said, ‘Due to the high price of bitumen, the risk of not being able to complete the blacktop work as per the target has increased.’ 

Till Falgun of the fiscal year 2082/83, 281,921 vehicles including buses, mini buses, trucks, micro buses, cars, motorcycles have been registered. Till Falgun 2082, the number of vehicles registered in this way has reached 62,49,732. The Economic Survey mentions that more than 5 million of the registered vehicles/transportation vehicles are motorcycles. 

Till Falgun of the current fiscal year, irrigation facilities have been expanded to 1,570 hectares of land, including 1,450 hectares of surface irrigation and 120 hectares of reservoir and lift irrigation, under the irrigation projects of the federal government. Accordingly, irrigation facilities have been extended to 1,587,910 hectares of land till Falgun 2082. Till Asad 2082, irrigation facilities had been expanded to 1,586,340 hectares of land. Out of the total cultivable land of 3557,764 hectares across the country, irrigation facilities have been extended to 44.63 percent of the land as of Falgun 2082.

Out of the irrigable land of 2536,319 hectares, irrigation facilities have been extended to 62.61 percent of the land as of Falgun 2082. As of Asar 2082, irrigation facilities had been extended to 44.59 percent of the cultivable land and 62.54 percent of the irrigable land. The Economic Survey mentions that 94,631 thatched houses (housing) have been replaced with zinc sheets as of Falgun of the current fiscal year under the Safe Housing Program. 

The total installed electricity capacity as of Falgun is 4,105 megawatts. Of this, 3,798 MW of installed capacity has been generated from hydropower, 142 MW from solar energy, 106.24 MW from the Alternative Energy Promotion Center, 53.4 MW from thermal plants, and 6 MW from sugar mills through cogeneration technology.  661.57 MW from electricity projects operated by the Nepal Electricity Authority, 748.4 MW from subsidiaries of the Electricity Authority, and 2,587 MW from projects operated by the private sector have been connected to the national grid as of Falgun 2082. 99.1 percent of the population has access to electricity, including alternative energy. The number of customers using electricity, including community consumers, has reached 5.859 million by Falgun 2082. It was 5.788 million by Asad 2082. 

It is estimated that by the end of the fiscal year 2082/83, 666 MW of additional electricity will be generated through the construction of various projects, bringing Nepal's electricity capacity to 4,626 MW. By Falgun of the current fiscal year, private sector hydropower companies have been granted electricity generation survey permits for 158 hydropower projects with an installed capacity of 2,400 MW. Along with this, the Economic Survey mentions that 225 projects have been issued with an installed capacity of 10,629 MW by Falgun 2082. 

31 water ATMs have been installed in public places and government hospitals in the Kathmandu Valley. The Economic Survey mentions that water ATMs have been installed in 31 different places in the Kathmandu Valley, including public places and government hospitals, as of last Falgun. In the current fiscal year, rainwater harvesting technology has been installed in 3 additional places within the Kathmandu Valley through the rainwater harvesting program. As a result, drinking water service has been provided to 900 people.