Donor-funded project affected

Most of the donor funded projects including road expansion programs have been badly affected as the government has failed to allocate sufficient amount for the projects under the one-third budget.
The Ministry of Physical Planning Works and Transport Management (MOPPWTM), which implements most of the major projects, stated that it couldn´t start the road and bridge construction projects supported by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) due to absence of full budget, shows an official report.
The World Bank has agreed to extend support worth Rs US$ 60 million to construct bridges along the strategically significant roads that include highways and feeder roads. Similarly, ADB has pledged to provide an assistance of US$ 75 million for the construction and upgradation of strategic roads.
The report further stated that the donor-funded projects, which reported smooth implementation last year, have been affected after the ministry failed to clear the fees to be paid to consultants of the projects.
"Road upgradation and new road construction programs have been the most affected as we couldn´t move ahead due to unavailability of sufficient budget," said Tulsi Prsad Sitaula, secretary at MoPPWTM.
Sitaula further said that most of the projects had been delayed due to technical problems in the tender process.
"It´s hard to get contractors ready to undertake the projects," Sitaula said. "It takes two to three months to complete a tender process and another one month to get it approved. How can we implement the programs when the tender process takes almost four months?" added Sitaula.
Additionally, Sitaula has cautioned that development projects might be affected in the remaining two quarters of the current fiscal year. "The entire development will see a severe set back as implementation progress has remained dismal in the first quarter" he said .