Few successes, many failures

Infrastructure Development in 2012

It comes as no surprise that the government could not complete the road expansion in the Kathmandu Valley in the promised time. However, the fact is the expansion drive that kicked off in 2012 has widened more than 125 road sections and expanded around 200 km of roads, easing the lives of commuters.
Though the road expansion program was launched amid appreciations and criticisms from different quarters, nobody can deny that it has become a landmark achievement that Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai can boast for years to come. In fact, many tag it as the only tangible achievement of the Bhattarai-led government.
The government had announced that the expansion drive would be completed by August 2012. But as the year ends, it is not even half way through.
Road sections where all works of expansion have been concluded include Kalimati-Balkhu (3 km), Dillibazar-Baluwatar (3.2 km), Bhatbhateni-Dhumbarahi (2 km) and Kuleshwore-Teku (2 km).
"Altogether more than 78 km of road expansion including small and long stretches has been completed," Krishna Hari Baskota, secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) said.
"We will complete expansion of 100 km by coming April," Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management (MoPPWTM) added.
The government has already widened 150 km of road in the valley. "The task of laying gravels in 100 km, out of the total widened road, is under way, and the process of blacktopping 50 km road is in progress," Baskota said.
The government has already spent Rs 1.5 billion in the road expansion so far and plans to spend additional Rs 5 billion.
"Similarly, as per a government estimate, private properties worth Rs 10 billion has been destroyed in the road expansion drive until now," Baskota added.
Similarly, the government has also announced plans to develop Bagmati and Bishnumati corridor aiming to ease the traffic in the Valley. "There are different constraints in developing the corridor such as obstructions from squatters and the compulsion to save natural resources," Baskota said.
Likewise, the government has also started to expand the road section in the Valley such as Vijaya Marg (3 km), Banasthali (1.5 km), Seto Pul (5 km) and Chabahil to Sundarijal (10 km).
Contrary to the success in expanding the Valley´s roads, the government failed miserably when it came to developing large-scale national-level infrastructure projects. "We couldn´t deliver substantial results in our national pride projects such as Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track, Mid Hill Highway and North-South Highway," Sitaula said.
According to Sitaula, the track opening for the Fast Track project could not been completed due to high cost of land acquisition in some areas such as Khokana, Lalitpur. "The construction of North-South Highway and Mid Hill Highway did not take off due to different constraints," he added.
The government couldn´t introduce new projects in the current fiscal year due to lack of budget. "Even the ongoing projects are facing different problems," Sitaula said. "The donor funded infrastructure projects such as strategic road and bridge projects have been stalled due to lack of budget."
Hydroelectricity
Load shedding hours this winter might get longer than in the previous years, but endeavors made in 2012 were comparatively better towards accomplishing the long term goal of generating enough hydropower to meet the national demand.
The government granted licenses to 23 different power developers during 2012 who are engaged in small and medium sized hydropower projects that will generate a of total 924.6 MW hydropower within next few years.
Mega hydropower projects such as Arun III (900 MW), West Seti (750 MW), Upper Karnali (900 MW) and Upper Tamakoshi (600 MW) that were in standstill got some impetus in 2012.
However, officials at the Ministry of Energy (MoE) express mixed reactions about the achievements made during the year.
"We have been able to achieve quite a lot during the year in paper but the progress in the field is not that encouraging," Sriranjan Lacoul, joint secretary at the MoE said. "Lack of investment environment, local issues and lack of risk mitigation mechanism in our country, among others, are the reasons for this situation."
The government formed a new entity called Nepal Investment Board (NIB) and tasked it with the responsibility to lure foreign investments into the country. Last May the government handed over 14 mega projects including 5 mega hydropower projects to the board. In addition, the government has given NIB the authority to implement all hydropower projects above 500 MW.
According to Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), total of 5013 KW power has been added in the national power grid in 2012. The small power projects which have been streamlined in the national power grid are Gayatri Hydropower (955 KW), Thansikhila (955 KW), Prime Hydropower (518 KW), Namobuddha Hydropower (900 KW), Mansarobar Hydropower (580 KW) and Universal Hydropower (480 KW), among others.