The multinational donor had supported Nepal to build around a dozen bridges in the Kathmandu Valley in the early 1990s.[break]
Officials said the WB assistance will focus on old bridges and building bridges along the highways and feeder roads that are significant from the economic and strategic point of view.
Madhav Karki, joint secretary at the Department of Roads (DoR), said WB has principally agreed to extend support for the construction of new bridges in strategic locations and maintenance of old bridges.
“The WB is positive about extending support to repair existing bridges and construct new strategic bridges under the four-year fund of $100 million, of which WB will provide $60 million and the government is chipping in $40 million,” Karki told Republica.
Though over 1,400 bridges require repairs, the government has allocated Rs 300 million for the purpose in the current fiscal. The amount was only Rs 30 million for fiscal 2009/10, which was declared the ‘Year of Road Construction’ by the government.
The government has been repairing nine bridges, including the Mugling Bridge, under central budget and 12 bridges at the local level.
Karki said the government was preparing to carry out a Prioritized Investment Plan (PIP) to take stock of the latest condition of bridges and places requiring construction of new bridges across the country.
“We are in the process of hiring a consultant firm soon to complete the process of conducting the survey within a year,” said Karki. He said a total of 200 new bridges can be constructed and 1400 existing bridges repaired with the fund.
The government has started construction of over 90 bridges this year, while some 250 bridges are under-construction since the last few years.
“We plan to complete the construction of over 90 bridges this year,” added Karki.
Keeping in view the urgency of repair and maintenance of the existing bridges, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW) has proposed to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) an estimated budget of four billion rupees in the upcoming budget.
Kamal Raj Pandey, joint secretary at the MoPPW, said the first round of dialogue regarding the WB support has already been held. “We are going to finalize the talks in this regard with the second mission from the WB that is arriving here soon,” Pandey said.
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