Due to the West Asian conflict, the construction of various road projects has been stalled due to the increase in the prices of bitumen and diesel. The projects have stated that they have not received bitumen even after paying higher prices. 

The Suryabinayak-Dhulikhel road expansion work under the Araniko Highway, which has been going on at a rapid pace recently, has been affected. The target under the project was to complete the first layer of blacktop on the 15.8-kilometer road section in the current fiscal year. It has been contracted in two sections, Suryabinayak-Sanga and Sanga-Dhulikhel.

The contract for the 7.5-km Suryabinayak-Sanga section was won by Ashish-Kumar Shrestha-Bandhan Bhagwati JV on 24 Paush 2079. The contract amount of which is 3 billion 889.3 million rupees, and the progress is 50 percent. So far, only one and a half km has been blacktopped in this section. The deadline for this section is 29 Falgun 2083. Due to lack of bitumen, further blacktopping has not been possible. 

The blacktop project has stalled, said Bijay Kumar Mahato, head of the Suryabinayak-Dhulikhel road project. ‘Blacktop is being done towards Dhulikhel, construction entrepreneurs are working by bringing bitumen at high prices, but blacktop has not been completed in the Suryabinayak-Sanga section,’ he said, ‘If the prices of bitumen and petroleum products had not increased, the first layer of the two layers could have been completed.’

So far, 5.5 km of the first layer of the 8.3 km Sanga-Dhulikhel section has been blacktopped. The construction progress of this section is 70 percent. Lama Construction won the contract for the section on 27 Mangsir 2079 for 4.56 billion rupees. The deadline has been extended until 23 Mangsir 2083. So far, the construction progress of the entire project is 56 percent. The project says that 90 percent of the work of the 1 km underpass in the Sanga section has been completed in the Sanga section.

The blacktop works on the national pride projects Mid-Hill, Hulaki, Koshi, Kaligandaki, Karnali Highways and Kathmandu-Terai/Madhesh Expressway (Fast Track) have been stopped due to lack of bitumen. Blacktop works have also been affected on the Madan Bhandari Highway, Nagdhunga-Muglin, Kakadbhitta-Laukahi road sections. Work on the Nagdhunga-Muglin road section, which carries more than 12,000 vehicles daily, has not been able to pick up speed. 94.66 km of road is being upgraded from Nagdhunga to Muglin. 

It has been divided into three sections and contracted under a concessional loan from the World Bank. The first section of 12.26 km is Nagdhunga-Naubise, the second section of 43.54 km is Naubise-Malekhu, and the third section of 38.86 km is Malekhu-Muglin. The second layer of blacktop was completed on the Nagdhunga-Naubise road section and the final layer of blacktop was being started. At this time, there was a shortage due to the increase in the price of bitumen, and the work was stopped. Out of the 12.26 km that had been started for upgrading, only 6 km of the final layer of blacktop was completed. 

Keshav Prasad Ojha, head of the eastern section of the Nagdhunga-Muglin road project, said that the work was stopped after the bitumen was finished. ‘There is no problem with the construction materials available here, construction entrepreneurs have not worked properly due to the increase in the price of bitumen and petroleum products,’ he said. Preparations are currently being made to blacktop the Ukalo and Bazar areas of Dharke, which are prone to problems during the rainy season. He said that information that 100 tons of bitumen are coming has come from the construction entrepreneur. 

The Pushpalal (Mid-Hill) Highway, which is a symbol of national pride, has also not been blacktopped. Engineer Sachin Shrestha, information officer of the Pushpalal (Mid-Hill) Highway, said that the blacktop could not be done due to the shortage of bitumen. ‘Its price has also increased, it is not easily available in the market,’ he said, ‘The work of roads being constructed under the Ramechhap, Parbat, Dailekh, Gorkha Planning Office has been affected.’ 

Although the target was to blacktop 75 km of roads in the current fiscal year, only 44.25 km has been completed by mid-Baishakh, he said. So far, the construction progress is 83.58 percent. Of the 1,879 km of roads to be constructed under this highway project, 462 km has been constructed under other projects and divisions.

So far, 1,67.6 km of roads have been blacktopped under the Mid-Hill Project. The construction of 114 bridges has been completed. Blacktopping has also been affected on the national pride Kathmandu-Terai/Madhes Fast Track. ‘The problem of bitumen is all over the country, the bitumen used in it is BG-40 bitumen, it is not available anywhere in Nepal, it is of high quality,’ said a project source, ‘It comes from outside, because it is not available now, only 3.5 km of the 10 km road that needs to be blacktopped has been completed.’ The project stated that the failure to blacktop as per the target will also affect the overall progress. The deadline for this project is only until Chaitra 2083. 

 It has been 16 years since the construction of the national pride postal highway began, but the work has not been completed. So far, the construction progress is only 74.35 percent. The highway construction was started from the fiscal year 2066/67 as per the concept of connecting the area from Kechanakawal in Jhapa to Dodhara-Chandani in Kanchanpur in the west. The project, which was started with the aim of benefiting about one crore people from 21 districts of Tarai-Madhesh, has not progressed either due to budget constraints or delays in policy decisions. 

The work has come to a standstill due to the price hike and shortage of bitumen, said Kuber Nepali, director of the Postal Highways Directorate. ‘The blacktop work has come to a standstill in Madi, Sunsari, and Morang in Chitwan,’ he said, ‘It has only been partially completed in Dhangadhi and Dang, which has affected the overall project.’ 

Balkrishna Thapa, vice-president of the Federation of Nepal Construction Entrepreneurs, said that although the government has repeatedly said that it will adjust the price of construction materials, no decision has been made on this matter yet. ‘During discussions and talks with the Minister of Infrastructure Development, it was thought that the problem would be resolved quickly, but it did not happen,’ he said, ‘Construction entrepreneurs are in pain, the government should solve the problem quickly and create an environment for work.’ He said that the government should not do the same thing in other sectors by reducing the 15 percent customs duty imposed on bitumen to 5 percent. 

Secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Gopal Prasad Sigdel, said that the construction sector was affected by the unnatural price hike in bitumen and petroleum products due to the conflict in West Asia. "From Falgun to Jestha is the time for road construction and blacktop work," he said during a discussion on the budget and price adjustment problem in infrastructure organized by the Society of Economic Journalists of Nepal (SEJON) on Friday. "Many works have been stopped, the state should take ownership of this and move forward."