Govt changes tack against political pressure

The government has decided to adopt a new policy on bridge constructions, under which it will soon segregate the total demand for construction of bridges under different categories and prioritize only bridges that are genuinely important and needed. 

The new initiative has been taken mainly because the haphazard construction of local roads in different election constituencies in the interest of politicial leaders started generating pressure on the government to build bridges on such roads as well. 

"Given the soaring demand for construction of bridges on such politically-inspired roads, we are neither able to focus properly on the construction of strategic and significant bridges nor ensure that the budget allocated for bridges is used meaningfully," said a source at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW). 

Given such a situation, the government had decided to adopt a more efficient Bridge Management System (BMS) for the prioritization of bridge constructions. With support from the World Bank it has already developed software for BMS, which will rank all the demands for bridges received from different parts of the country after analyzing the ground realities and strategic importance. 

"BSM is advanced technology. It will help us prioritize the necessity of bridges in any given area," Krityanand Thakur, project chief at the Bridge Project at the Department of Roads (DoR), told Republica. He added that it will for the first time establish a standard assessment and prioritization system in the country. 

Adoption of the new system will enable DoR to systematically handle undue pressure coming from political leaders to construct bridges in their own constituencies. If their needs prove genuine, their requests will be picked up, otherwise not.

"We were compelled to use 75 percent of the total budget for bridge projects allocated this year to implement projects that political leaders pressed for," said the same source, indicating that only 25 percent of about Rs 4.6 billion that MoPPW spent so far has gone into the construction of important bridges.

Officials said they are planning to implement the new system from the upcoming fiscal year. However, MoPPW will be able to implement its decision only if the government and the World Bank ink a roads project agreement within this fiscal year. "The World Bank has agreed to provide from next fiscal year a certain percent of the total required cost for the construction of bridges that fall within the national strategic road network," Thakur said. 

In order to avoid undue political pressure, which dilutes DoR´s focus, the government has also decided to task it only with the development of bridges in the national strategic road network. "DoR will not be handling bridges on local roads that have just been laid out in different electoral constituencies," Thakur said.

GEF to provide USD 8.3 million

Global Environment Facility (GEF) has committed to provide USD 8.3 million to Nepal in order to execute its proposed programs to conserve bio-diversity and resist climate change effects. 

According to a press statement issued by the finance ministry, “Lal Shankar Ghimire, joint secretary at the finance ministry shared the commitment that came from GEF at the sixth constituency meeting of South Asia Group of GEF held this week in Male, Maldives,” reads the release. [beak]

The meeting focused on issues related to progress made in areas of climate change and bio-diversity by the member countries and was chaired by finance secretary Krishna Hari Baskota. All the member countries had shared their progress report at the meeting. 

Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, India and Nepal are only the member countries of the Group from South Asia. GEF, which was established in 1991, works in range of issues including climate change, land degradation, bio-diversity, waters and sustainable forest management among others.

Performance of bridge project exceeds recent records

Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW) might have failed to gear up roads and railway project, but its performance on bridge construction this year has well exceeded recent years´ records.

Records at the ministry show, Department of Roads (DoR) that executes bridge projects has already completed 50 bridges on the national strategic road network, and works on 350 other bridges that are under construction is also moving at a good pace. 

“In fact, its performance has been so good that it has already spent Rs 2 billion allocated for the construction and maintenance of bridges, and has placed a demand for additional Rs 2.6 billion for settling payment of contractors,” said an official of the Ministry of Finance (MoF). 

Under the annual budgetary program, the government had assigned MoPPW to handle the construction and maintenance of 400 bridges, including 100 bridges on the national strategic road network and 300 bridges on newly expanded roads, mainly in rural areas.

Of them, Karnali Bridge, Benighat Bridge, Rato River Bridge in Siraha, Pathraiya Bridge in Kailali district, Bahuligat Bridge in Bajhang district, Budikulo Bridge in Bardiya district and Bhusunde Khola Bridge in Gorkha are major projects of strategic importance.

“We have already achieved 50 percent of the task, completing 50 bridges along national strategic road network. Construction works in the remaining projects too are going on at a good pace,” said Krityanand Thakur, project chief of the Bridge Project at the DoR.

What troubles the department and MoPPW now is the lack of budget. As the pace of bridge constructions, which were started since last few years, exceeded the government´s anticipation, the payment liability has far exceeded the amount that MoF allocated for the purpose. 

“Even after spending the allocated Rs 2 billion, we still owe Rs 2.60 billion to the contractors,” Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, secretary of the MoPPW, told Republica.

The Ministry has already apprised MoF of the situation and requested it for the release of additional amount within this fiscal year. “MoF officials have verbally agreed to release the fund,” said Sitaula.

However, other officials at MoPPW said they are skeptic over MoF releasing the promised amount. “We have received informal information that MoF is planning to release us just Rs 1 billion in this fiscal year,” said a source.

Of the 400 bridges handled by the DoR, 340 were projects carried forward from the previous year, while 60 were the newly initiated projects.

“Though we lagged behind on performances of national priority projects, spending on bridge projects have been outstanding,” Sitaula said, adding, “Hopefully, MoF will respond positively to our request so that we could continue the momentum of construction works.” 

According to MoPPW, it would need a total of Rs 22 billion to complete the construction of all the planned bridge projects.

Agricultural production up 9.8%

The overall production of major crops, such as paddy, maize and wheat, has gone up this fiscal year, despite the inability of the government to distribute adequate chemical fertilizers and seeds of cereal crops to farmers in time.

According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC), the total production of major crops is estimated to go up by 9.8 percent and reach 9.45 million tons in the current fiscal year. 

However, the total contribution of cereal crops in the agricultural gross domestic production (AGDP) will post a decline, as the weightage of horticulture in the AGDP basket has gone up to 38.16 percent in the current fiscal year, while contribution of cereal crops has fallen by 8.36 percentage points to 28 percent, Dr Hari Dahal, joint secretary of MoAC, told media persons on Tuesday. 

Dr Dahal, acknowledging shortage of chemical fertilizers and seeds as primary factors that restricted cereal crops production, said: "The timely monsoon and favorable climate were the major reasons that contributed to the growth." This was achieved despite fuel and electricity shortage faced by farmers in the Tarai region and adverse weather condition induced by factors such as hailstorms.

MoAC estimates show that paddy production will go up by 13.7 percent in the current fiscal year to reach 5.07 million tons. Similarly, the production of maize will also rise by 5.4 percent to hit 2.17 million tons. However, the maize production growth rate will be lower this fiscal year compared to that of last year when growth rate was recorded at 11.45 percent.

Production of wheat - seeds of which are distributed by the government - will also rise by 5.7 percent to reach 1.84 million tons. The wheat production growth rate is also expected to go down this year compared with that of last year´s 12.16 percent. 

Despite the rise in agricultural output, the worrisome condition is that farmers have not been able to reap its benefit. 

"The prices of crops and food also have not increased in proportion with the production output," Dr Dahal said, blaming "middlemen for not letting the benefit of higher agricultural production trickle down to farmers"