Optical fiber has been installed along 1, 013 kilometers length so far under the Optical Fiber Backbone Network Expansion Project across the country.
Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) had initiated the project with a goal of expanding the optical fiber network within two years, but only 46.53 percent of work has been completed till October 17, said the project officials.
Nepal Telecom, which had got the responsibility of laying fiber in Provinces 1, 2, and Bagmati Province under the first phase, has completed installing the optical fiber in these areas.
As per the agreement, the NT has to install fiber along 2,083 kilometers in three provinces. Of them, it has laid fiber along 1,013 kilometers in five years.
The NTA had given the responsibility to install fiber in 6,235 kilometers of the mid-hill highway to three separate companies dividing the project into three sections.
NTA had signed an agreement with Nepal Telecom on September 28, 2012, in order to lay the fiber from eastern Nepal to Gorkha within two years under the first section.
However, installation of fiber has not begun in 2,160 kilometers in 21 districts of Gandaki and Lumbini provinces under Section-2.
The expansion work has been halted as a case has been filed against it in the Supreme Court, it has been said.
