Over recent years, the government has been keeping to the target of constructing 30 bridges per annum.[break] However, this year´s target has been set at 71 bridges. According to officials, the target will also include completion of the government´s three-year plan of building 104 bridges. The plan is in its last year and saw construction of 45 bridges over the past two years.
An agreement has been reached between the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works to spend up to 15 percent of the latter´s budget -- which seems to have frozen at the end of each fiscal year -- on the construction of bridges. The total budget of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works in the current fiscal year is Rs 29 billion.
According to Joint-Secretary Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, chief of Construction Division at the Ministry, the government will shift its focus to construction of bridges next year when all district headquarters except in Humla, Dolpa and Mugu are expected to have motorable-road connectivity. "By next year, our focus will be on bridges, besides special projects like north-south highways and mid-hills highways," said Sitaula.
Out of 10,000 km of motorable road constructed across the country to date, over 7,000 km still lack bridge connectivity. Because of the difficult terrain, roads in Nepal on average need bridge connectivity for every 5 km segment. "We need 700 bridges up front to fully utilize our road access," he added.
There are over 200 under-construction bridges including many that have remained uncared-for over several years after a certain level of construction work.
The government is now undertaking construction of over a dozen 200-meter bridges and also a few that are longer than 500 meters.
Meanwhile, the budget for bridges this year has reached Rs 2.5 billion, double the amount allocated last year. "It is still only nearly half the amount we asked for," said Sitaula.
Forty new bridge projects including the 700-meter Kothiyaghat Bridge over the Karnali River in Banke district are to be launched during this year, thanks to the added budget.
Related story
11 bridges along Narayanghat-Mugling road come into operation,...
