It has been learnt that the Makawanpur DAO has been irresponsive to efforts to facilitate and speed up the land acquisition process resulting in cost escalation and reduction of viability of the US$800 million project. According to the blueprint of the project, once completed, 76 kilometers of road would cut through Mawakanpur, Lalitpur and Kathmandu districts. Of this, the biggest stretch falls in Makawanpur. And the failure to acquire land there so far has come as a big blow.
Such bottlenecks are contrary to what the nation needs right now, which is a rapid construction of roads across the country. If road expansion projects themselves provide employment to hundreds of unemployed or underemployed Nepalis, the completed roads open up a host of possibilities. For example, if a farmer in Mustang has easy and quick access to roads, it will be a great incentive for him to produce more apples because the product can then be transported quickly to the local and international markets. In its absence, the farmer not only runs the risk of being cheated by conniving middlemen but it also does not provide him motivation to produce more than what can be consumed or sold locally. Further, good connectivity reduces the cost of products, saves time and makes life easier for the citizens as they can have easy access to schools and hospitals.
There is a need right now not only for further extension of our 21,093 km road network (of which just 6,669 km is blacktopped) but also upgrading the 9,417 km of dirt tracks and 5,007 km of graveled roads into silky, blacktopped roads. The government must keep these tasks in its priority list.
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