KATHMANDU, June 18: The government has met only one-third of the annual target of blacktopping roads by the end of the current fiscal year, thanks to the slow capital expenditure by the government and the ‘construction holiday’ launched by the contractors.

According to the Department of Roads, the government had set a target to blacktop a road length of 1,800 km in 2021/22. However, road stretches measuring less than 600 km in length have been completed as of mid-June. 

Similarly, road stretches measuring only 295 km in length were graveled across the country during the review period against the annual target of Rs 800 km. Likewise, only 101 bridges were constructed out of the targeted 300 bridges. 

Late implementation of the budget, impacts of coronavirus and ‘construction holiday’ by the contractors have been blamed for the slow work in the sector. Showing the cause of excessive rise in prices of construction materials, contractors have stopped working for the last one month.

With less than a month left for the current fiscal year to end, the government has spent only 36.72 percent of the development budget. Nepal now has a total of 33,871 km road stretch out of which 16,939 km is blacktopped road and 8,821 km is gravel road.

 
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