Kathmandu, March 26 : Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayankaji Shrestha has instructed to first repair road stretching from Lainchaur to Balaju and the one leading from Keshar Mahal to the Tribhuvan International Airport.
Stressing on quality roads within the Kathmandu Valley, DPM Shrestha directed to make a special plan for upgradation of roads in the Valley.
At a high-level coordination meeting with the representatives of eight agencies related to roads here on Sunday, DPM Shrestha reiterated, “Let there be an immediate concrete plan to upgrade the road leading from Lainchaur to Balaju and Keshar Mahal to Airport.” Stocktaking of condition of various roads in the Valley, he emphasized coordination among the concerned agencies to deliver on quality roads. “The people have paid taxes. It is unfortunate that the government could not deliver them good roads. We should rise above the situation where the public experience hassles due to poor road condition.”
According to him, discussions on ‘Utility Corridor’ were held with his Ministry and the Prime Minister to address the recurring issues relating to building, expansion and repair of roads. Warning of action against erring construction entrepreneurs failing to deliver well on road related projects, the DPM sought cooperation towards those entrusted with the contract to construct roads.
The participants of the meeting deliberated on the conditions of 15 roads to be built by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and 18 others by the Project Implementation Directorate as well as the national highways, auxiliary roads among others in the country.
Keshav Kumar Sharma, Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, drew the attention of the stakeholders towards the troubles facing the general public due to poor road conditions. “It has been a national disgrace since the roads are not timely repaired. It is imperative that we scale up cooperation.
We should not squander any time in blame-game anymore.” Also, speaking in the meeting Kulman Ghising, NEA’s Executive Director, admitted that they could not timely construct some of the road projects. He requested the participants in the meeting to understand the complexity of the management of underground wires. He, however, articulated the NEA’s readiness to complete the road construction in a speedy manner.
Likewise, Rajendra Sapkota, Director at the Project Implementation Directorate, said that Directorate was ready to scale up coordination among the stakeholder agencies for timely completion of the road projects. DP Chapagain, Deputy General Manager of the Kathmandu Valley Drinking Water Limited, pressed for changing the current strategy, and accelerate the road construction drives.
The participants in the meeting agreed to scale up coordination and collaboration among the stakeholder agencies and to prepare a new modality constructed in agreement with various donor agencies such as the World Bank.
They agreed that an integrated statistic system on the roads in the Kathmandu Valley will be put in place while correspondence would be done with the concerned construction company to blacktop the Vegetable and Fruit Market at Balkhu in Kathmandu.
The Federal Road Supervision and Monitoring Office stated that many of the problems related to major roads in the Kathmandu Valley were untimely response towards leakages of water on the part of the Kathmandu Valley Drinking Water Limited.
The Project Implementation Directorate digging the roads without prior approval and not completing pipeline related works on time were the major issues ascertained by the Monitoring Office while untimely wire management on the part of the NEA had increased risk of road accidents, it was said.
