KATHMANDU, April 10: The construction of a multistory Parliament building that began over five years ago at best progresses at a snail’s pace despite extension of the project deadline for as many as four times.
The irony is that the building in question is located just beside the ostensible Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers (OPMCM) within the Singh Durbar premises, also home to 20 or so ministries and the National Planning Commission.
The construction began in the year 2019.
The tricky situation is such: The law of the land does not allow a fifth extension of the deadline and the “senior officials” at the Ministry of Urban Development said they did not know the next steps. The fourth extension covering a period of one year ended on March 31.
Although the construction work on the Parliament building continues, ministry officials have yet to decide whether to allow the contractor to continue the remaining work.
Speaker Devraj Ghimire has been pressuring senior government officials to get the building completed so an early hand-over is possible.
The responsibility for constructing the Parliament building rests on the Special Building Project under the Urban Development Ministry. According to project sources, about 86 percent of the construction work on the Parliament building has been completed so far.
Will new parliament building be ready before March 5?
Officials from the Special Building Project, the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction, and the Ministry were - and are - reluctant to speak about what needs to be done to complete the remaining work, except for rather ridiculous statement to the effect that "any decision on the matter is still pending.”
A certain senior employee even requested that no news be published on the issue.
What does the law say?
Section 120 of the existing Public Procurement Regulations, 2006, bars a fifth extension of the project deadline, meaning the government has two options: (a) imposition of a penalty on the contractor company at a daily rate of 0.05 percent (Rs 2.5 million per day) and have them complete the work within 240 days. Understandably, the senior officials from the department or the construction company are reluctant to pursue this option, and (b) amendment of the Public Procurement Regulations, 2006, to grant the contractor company a new lease of life.
Not unsurprisingly, according to ministry sources, the senior officials from the department and contracting company prefer the second option. To make things easy for the contractors, the OPMCM can amend the Public Procurement Regulations, removing the key obstacle that bars a 5th deadline extension.
The Regulation in question was last amended for the 13th time while giving the contractors a year-long extension in the previous year. The 13th amendment allowed extension of deadlines for the “ongoing projects”, including the Parliament building and the Dharahara, for one final time. Since the amendment specifies the words ‘one final time’, a fifth extension is not possible unless the Regulation is amended “another final time”.
Pramod Shrestha, an engineer from Tunditech, the contractor company for the Parliament building, mentioned that due to various reasons, the work was not completed within the extended deadline. He stated, “We are prepared to complete the work within the next 6 months. We are working accordingly.”
He mentioned that the government has not yet made a decision on whether to impose a daily penalty on the contractor or grant a fifth extension. According to him, the interior work is currently ongoing, and the main building’s roof works have been completed. The remaining tasks include interior decoration, installation of the security and the audio-visual systems.
A ministry official boasted that the government currently had the funds, technical manpower, workers, and construction materials.
Time and again, the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the House, the Chairman of the National Assembly, the heads of parliamentary committees, the Members of Parliament, and the line ministers have inspected the Parliament building. Every time, they have “instructed” that the work be completed. After the change of guard at the Ministry of Urban Development, it has become a tradition for the new minister to visit the construction site and instruct the contractor to expedite the work. The incumbent Urban Development Minister Prakash Man Singh did that too.
After the 2022 elections, the ministers stated that the first session of the newly elected Parliament would be held in the new building. However, that would not happen. Following this, it was announced that the winter session of Parliament would be held in the new building. When that also became unfeasible, the then-Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal declared that the Parliament building would be completed within a year and the parliamentary session would be convened there.
That announcement also was not implemented within the stipulated time. There is still no clear timeline for when the Parliament building will be completed or when the parliamentary session will be held in the new building. “It should be understood that the delay is due to the government's lack of preparation rather than the contractor company,” said a technical official from the ministry.
The change in the design of the dome resulted in the financial burden, according to the official. A source stated, “One of the reasons for the delay in the completion of the Parliament building is the government's inability to press the contractor company to complete the work on time.”
In addition, the delay in the timely study of the DPR (Detailed Project Report), the failure to assess potential risks and challenges in advance, and not allowing the consultants to carry out sufficient work have also contributed to the delay in the completion of the building. Frequent changes in the design have also caused delays in the project.
On October 2, 2019, an agreement was made with the contractor company to complete the construction of the new federal parliament building within three years at a cost of Rs 5.242 billion. However, after the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction approved the Variation Order (VO) proposal in February 2024, an additional Rs 560 million is now required for the construction of the Parliament building.
The then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli laid the foundation stone for the new Parliament building on September 18, 2019. He serves as the Prime Minister yet again.
For now, since 2008, the government has the International Conference Center in New Baneshwor to conduct parliamentary sessions.
