“Now we have decided not to make it mandatory for KNFT to share the expressway´s alignment with KHTH and it is now optional,” said Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management (MoPPWTM).[break]
Under the new decision, he elaborated that the firm implementing KNFT in build-own-operate-and-transfer (BOOT) model can share the alignment if it wished to do so. “If not, it can say it will not share the alignment,” Sitaula told Republica.
Previously, the Ministry and National Planning Commission (NPC) had agreed in principal to make a common alignment for two much-hyped projects KHTH and KNFT along the 15 km stretch in Khokana area citing that the step would reduce the cost of land acquisition.
“The first priority goes to the Fast Track. It is much more important project for Nepal. Hence, no decision should be a binding constraint for this highly significant project,” Sitaula said.
The Fast Track, which will connect Kathmandu and Nijghad of Bara, is a 76-km expressway, while the 50-km Tunnel Highway will link Kathmandu and Hetauda.
The government rolled back its earlier decision of making a common alignment for the two projects after the bureaucrats and experts expressed grave concern over the decision.
Saroj Man Shrestha, former chief of the Fast Track project said, “No investors will come if the government forced it to share a common alignment with another project.”
Some of the officials at the ministry also viewed that the common alignment for both the project would complicate matter for the fast track project, particularly as sharing of certain segment of roads might turn international investors away.
Moreover, the government´s decision had come without proper study of consequences that might surface due to a common alignment for the two projects.
The government has handed over the Tunnel Highway project to the Nepal Purvadhar Bikas Company (NPBC) under the build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) act in May, whereas it has called for expression of interest (EoI) from the contractors for the Fast Track project only recently.
The NPBC has been asked to develop the Tunnel Highway within 4 years.
Kishore Nath Gongal, project chief of the fast track project, had talked to the senior Ministry officials about possible adverse consequence that the project would face from the common alignment.
According to a source privy to the project, Gongal had even shared the concerns of perspective investors over the decision.
According to the source, few potential investors who have already bought expression of interest (EoI) to develop the Fast Track had voiced their concern over the decision on common alignment at the project office.
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