“The Indian government has agreed to build bridges along the link roads,” Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management (MoPPWTM) told Republica. The government had requested India to build the bridges expressing its inability to build the bridges on its own.[break]
The Indian government had agreed to provide financial and technical assistance for construction of link roads in the Terai region in 2006 on condition that Nepal would build bridges along the link roads on its own.
A bilateral meeting in October 2012 mainly focused on implementation of the project. The government will build a few bridges in the first phase of the project. The first phase of the project covers around 600 km of the link roads. The total length of the link roads is 1,500 km. The remaining 900 km link roads will be constructed in the second and third phase of the project.
“However, we have not been able to effectively implement the first phase due to problems in acquisitioning land for the project,” said an official at MoPPWTM.
India had agreed to provide grant assistance for the project in 2004 and signed an agreement to this effect in June 2006.
As per the agreement, the government of Nepal was supposed to acquire land for the project. The bilateral meeting in October had decided to sort the problems in the implementation of the project. Indian government has allocated Rs 10 billion for the first phase of project.
Related story
Minister Lekhak on inauguration spree
_20240311121839.jpg)
