KATHMANDU, April 24: Construction entrepreneurs have launched ‘construction holiday’, halting the works of all development projects citing the skyrocketing prices of construction materials.

The protest by the contractors will affect around 3,700 ongoing construction projects worth Rs 600 billion. Ravi Singh, president of the Federation of Contractors’ Associations of Nepal (FCAN), said they are compelled to go into the ‘construction holiday’ as the prices of construction materials have risen significantly compared to the time they were awarded the contracts.

According to FCAN, there are around 5,000 projects under-construction at present. The estimated cost of these projects is Rs 800 billion. “Of them, work of only 1,500 projects related to tunnel road, bridges and blacktop will not be disrupted,” Singh said.

After the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, the prices of mainly petroleum products, bitumen and raw materials of construction materials including iron rods have gone up by an excessively large amount. The construction entrepreneurs said they will not resume their work until the government addresses the current problem. 

 
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