KATHMANDU, May 9: Budget allocation for Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport will grow by 35 percent to Rs 137 billion for the next fiscal year which starts from mid-July.
The whopping growth in allocation is mainly for financing Kathmandu Tarai Expressway, Mid-Hill Highway and Hulaki Rajmarga. Each of them is getting about Rs 15 billion, while north south river corridor projects are get about Rs 5 billion. Three North South corridor projects – Kaligandaki Corridor, Koshi Corridor and Karnali Corridor – are under construction.
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“Rise in budget allocation for us only natural as we are implementing different mega projects which are government’s priority,” Shiva Hari Sapkota, the spokesperson for the ministry, told Republica.
Sapkota also said that some budget will also be allocated to conduct study of different tunnel road projects.
In the Policy and Programs for FY2019/20, the government said that it will prioritize tunnel road projects in hilly areas to shorter travel distance. But it has drawn criticism from the opposition lawmakers.
“We will conduct studies of about six tunnel projects in the next fiscal year,” Sapkota added.
The ministry’s performance in budget implementation, however, has remained slow. It has also been blamed for not paying contractors for completed works in time. It has managed to spend only around 51 percent of the allocated Rs 100 billion in the current fiscal year so far.
Sapkota also said that they were also planning to allocate needful budgets for projects that can go into immediate implementation.
