In the upcoming fiscal year 2082/83, the Department of Roads will not introduce any new road construction projects. Only existing and ongoing projects will be included in the budget.
According to Umesh Bindu Shrestha, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and head of the Planning Division of the Department of Roads, a consensus was reached among senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, the National Planning Commission, and the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure not to allocate budget for new road projects in the upcoming fiscal year. “It has been agreed that only old and ongoing projects will be included in the budget allocation,” said Shrestha.
Spokesperson for the Ministry, Bhimarjun Adhikari, stated that the ministry is currently managing around 1,200 programs in the current fiscal year. From these programs, the Department of Roads has awarded a total of 2,106 contracts so far. “The ministry has adopted a policy of completing existing projects on time instead of introducing new ones. Based on this, we are selecting programs that prioritize payment of obligations for old and ongoing projects,” said Adhikari. “Accordingly, ministry staff are currently entering program data into the ministry-level budget information system (LMBIS).”
He further mentioned that the budget ceiling for both the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and the Department of Roads has been reduced for the upcoming fiscal year.
Even national pride projects will not receive budget allocations as per their demands. While the ministry’s budget ceiling for the current fiscal year was NPR 151 billion, it has been reduced to NPR 144 billion for the next fiscal year. Similarly, the Department of Roads’ budget ceiling has dropped from NPR 117 billion in the current year to NPR 109 billion for the next.
According to Adhikari, over 15,000 program proposals were submitted nationwide for the upcoming fiscal year, but only around 1,200 have been selected. “Programs were shortlisted not strictly based on clear criteria or necessity, but often influenced by access and connections, which is unfortunate,” said another senior official.
It has been revealed that the selection of programs involves ministers, their secretariats, and high-ranking officials. Nationwide, about 100,000 kilometers of roads have been excavated, of which approximately 10,000 kilometers are blacktopped under the Department of Roads. According to department officials, even national pride and major projects like the Postal Highway, Mid-Hill Highway, and Madan Bhandari Highway have seen budget cuts. These projects have been allocated a budget ceiling of just NPR 3 to 3.5 billion each.
“With such low budget ceilings, even paying off existing liabilities might not be possible in the upcoming fiscal year. So how can additional construction progress?” asked another department staff member. “That’s why the physical progress of even national pride projects has been very slow.”
