No new road projects in upcoming budget

KATHMANDU, May 7: The Department of Roads has decided not to introduce any new road construction projects in the upcoming fiscal year 2025/26. It will allocate the budget solely for ongoing and previously approved projects.

Umesh Bindu Shrestha, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and Head of the Planning Division at the Department of Roads, said that senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, the National Planning Commission, and the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure reached a consensus to exclude new road-related programs from the next fiscal year's budget. "We agreed to allocate the upcoming fiscal year's budget only for ongoing and existing programs," Shrestha said.

Bhimarjun Adhikari, spokesperson for the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, said the ministry is running around 1,200 programs in the current fiscal year. Based on these programs, the Department of Roads has already awarded 2,106 contracts.

He stated, "The ministry has adopted a policy to prioritize the timely completion of existing projects over introducing new ones. We are selecting programs that focus on ongoing and current projects to ensure timely payments." He added that ministry staff are currently entering data into the Ministry-Level Budget Information System (LMBIS) in line with this policy.

He said the government has reduced the budget ceiling for both the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and the Department of Roads for the upcoming fiscal year.

The government will also withhold full budget allocations for national pride projects despite their requests. Adhikari noted that the ministry's budget ceiling, which stood at Rs 151 billion in the current fiscal year, will drop to Rs 144 billion in the next fiscal year.

The Department of Roads had a budget ceiling of Rs 117 billion in the current fiscal year, which has been reduced to Rs 109 billion for the next fiscal year. According to spokesperson Adhikari, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure received more than 15,000 program requests from across the country for the upcoming fiscal year. "We had to cut down to around 1,200 programs from these," he said.

The ministry plans to allocate a minimum of Rs 30 million for each program in the next fiscal year, whereas some programs in the current fiscal year received budgets as low as Rs 10 million. Another senior official from the ministry stated, "We based the process of narrowing down from 15,000 programs to 1,200 on access rather than clear criteria and needs, which is unfortunate."

The minister, the minister's secretariat, and senior officials have been found to take calls on the selection of programs. Currently, the country has constructed about 100,000 kilometers of roads, with the Department of Roads having paved around 10,000 kilometers. According to department staff, the budget ceiling for major national pride projects, such as the Postal Highway, Mid-Hill Highway, and Madan Bhandari Highway, has been reduced for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget ceiling for these projects is now set at Rs 3 to 3.5 billion.

"Given the budget ceiling allocated for these projects, it seems that there will not be enough funds to settle old obligations in the upcoming fiscal year. How will additional construction work be carried out?" asked another staff member. "This is why the physical progress of national pride projects has been very slow."