Kathmandu. Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Physical Infrastructure and Transport, and Urban Development Kulman Ghising has directed the government to initiate new tender process immediately to ensure the construction of road projects that have been annulled in the contract.

Speaking at a meeting of the Ministry’s First Quarter Progress Review and Ministry-level Development Problems Resolution Committee of the current fiscal year 2082÷83 today, Minister Ghising said that a new process for tendering should be forwarded immediately after evaluating the budget required to complete the construction and measuring the remaining works of the cancelled contracts.

As many as 43 contracts for the construction of bridges and roads under the Department of Roads have been terminated. The total amount of 43 contracts is Rs 2.97 billion.

Minister Ghising said that there was no problem at present as the resource management of the projects that were terminated in the contract was already and if necessary, necessary initiative and facilitation would be taken with the Ministry of Finance.

“There have been many problems in the construction of bridges in the Tarai÷Madhes, many bridges are in limbo, the same amount of work can be done on the road after allocating a certain budget, but it is not possible to do so on the bridge, so we should go for a multi-year process,” he said. ’

He said that the progress of the bodies under the physical infrastructure and transport sector was weak in the first quarter of the current fiscal year and it should be improved in the coming months.

“The suspension of the budget may be one of the reasons but the progress of the foreign-aided projects which do not have budget problem is also low.

Secretary at the Ministry, Keshav Kumar Sharma, said that the progress of the projects that have been annulled in the quarterly is not encouraging and the process of management should be forwarded immediately.

A total of Rs 151.75 billion has been allocated for the bodies under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport in the current fiscal year. Of this, Rs 48.52 billion has been allocated for the first quarter.

Out of the allocated budget for the first quarter, only Rs 11.64 billion has been spent. This is only 7.67 percent and 24 percent respectively on the basis of annual and quarterly allocation.

The Ministry presented problems including implementation of contract agreement due to lack of determination of the right of road in the projects of national pride (not published in the Gazette) and confusion in the management of the re-tender of the contract.