While vehicles get stuck in potholes, stumble upon stones and electricity poles scattered on the roads, accumulation of muddy water makes the matter worse.
The reconstruction of as many as 68 newly-expanded roads is incomplete, but the Tinkune-Maitighar highway, Chabahil and Lazimpat roads and the streets around Battisputali, Dillibazar and Old Baneshwar are in worse conditions. [break]
Two wheelers, four wheelers and pedestrians face difficulties to reach their destinations on these road stretches.
Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of Environment Division at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), says even the vehicles used in clearing the deluge often end up getting stuck in potholes at times. "Just two weeks ago, we had a hard time when one of our vehicles that reached Anamnagar to clear a waterlogged street got stuck in a pothole for hours," said Shrestha.
On June 29, a team of government secretaries, led by Secretary of the Prime Minister´s Office (PMO) Krishna Hari Banskota, had concluded that it was not impossible to complete the reconstruction of all the widened roads by the end of the current fiscal year.
Earlier, the government had claimed that it would finish 90 percent of reconstruction works on the newly-expanded road stretches by the end of the fiscal year. While admitting its failure to meet the deadline, the government passed the buck to contractors, saying that the latter were unable to complete their works in time.
Of the total 200 expanded roads, contractors have completed blacktopping of only 20 km so far and just 40 km roads have been graveled.
Recently, expressing dissatisfaction over the sluggish pace of work, Secretary Banskota demanded answers from the officials of the Department of Road (DoR) for the delay.
According to Banskota, contractors have not completed even one third of their works, or around 60 km road stretches, which they said they would finish by mid-July.
Only last week, a monitoring team comprising government officials from various ministries and departments reached the Lazimpat-Budhanilkantha road section, which has been divided into five sub road sections. There, the team observed a 600 meter-road stretch in Maligaun.
What the monitoring team came across was enough to shed light on how sluggish contractors have been. The eight meter-wide road there, with footpath on just one side, was to be completed in 15 days. However, there was no work going on. Instead, construction materials were found to be scattered everywhere.
After its inspection, the team, which had representatives from the KMC, Traffic Police, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), Nepal Telecom (NTC) and other stakeholders, directed the Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project to store construction materials at a safe and proper place. The team also directed the concerned authorities to manage all cables lying on the roadside that made pedestrians more vulnerable to road accidents.
While the Kathmandu Road Division office has graveled some of the expanded areas, many of those areas are strewn with dug out drainage pipes, uprooted electricity poles and cables. The vehicles randomly parked along the expanded road section do not help the situation.
While the Ministry of Urban Development plans to revive greenery along city roads once they are blacktopped, the new private buildings are also required to add to the green environment, said Banskota inspecting the road last week.
After construction of roads, the government would turn its focus on constructing traffic islands and overhead bridges, said Kishor Thapa, secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD).
Earlier in April, Chairman of the Council of Ministers Khil Raj Regmi has directed all related government agencies to expedite work to complete road expansion programs going on in different parts of the capital at the earliest.
Regmi had asked the concerned officials to take strong action against contractors who are delaying road expansion work on different pretexts. He had also directed the officials to put the expansion of main roads on top priority.
The PMO Secretary Banskota had also often reported to Chairman Regmi that 90 percent of the road expansion works will be completed by the end of fiscal year 2012/13.
However, the officials at the Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project (KVRIP) have said the heavy rainfall in pre monsoon and earlier arrival of monsoon disrupted the road construction work. He added that the labor shortage was another major problem the contractors were facing.
Currently, works such as clearing the electricity poles and wires and gravelling the road are being carried out. “We are shortly holding discussion with all the concerned offices and contractors on how to move forward,” claimed Shyam Kharel, chief of the KVRIP.
9 km ring road expansion postponed to mid-September
The plan to begin 9 km Kalanki-Koeshor ring road expansion from mid-July has been postponed till mid-September.
The project that has support from Chinese government could not begin in time following an unfavorable weather, KVRIP chief Kharel mentioned. Chinese government had provided Rs 3.7 billion aid for the widening of the road stretch that is projected to conclude in 2016.
Earlier, some green activists had also opposed the government plan to cut down around 1200 trees on either side of the ring road. However, the officials have claimed that maintaining greenery is high on their agenda, says Kharel.
Also, a group of environmentalists on June 29 paved 350 meter long and 2 meter wide cycle lane along the ring road in Thasikhel to show that roads can be widened without cutting the trees as an attempt to create common opinion to prevent the felling of trees of the ring road.
The group had also submitted letters to several government bodies and also to the Chinese Embassy to reconsider the decision to cut the trees while widening the road.
The government had planted the trees, as per the green belt program after the construction of the 27 km ring road in the 70s.
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