Most sections in KTM to be completed in January

KATHMANDU, Dec 2: Government officials said work on most of the sections in the road expansion drive in Kathmandu will be completed in January.



A team of senior government officials led by Krishnahari Baskota, secretary at the office of the prime minister, found the work progress in Kathmandu satisfactory after a field inspection at various places around the capital city on Saturday.[break]



"During our field visits, we found that road section stretching from Kamalpokhari to Maitidevi, Maitidevi to Dhovikhola Bridge and Maharajgunj to Baluwatar has been blacktopped," said Baskota, who heads the high-level monitoring committee.



At present, work is underway at 109 road sections in Kathmandu district, 11 road sections in Lalitpur and two sections in Bhaktapur. "Of them, roads at most of the sections in Kathmandu has been blacktopped while some other sections have been graveled," he said. The team also found that 70 percent of the total work have been completed in some parts while some other sections have been left behind.



During the inspection, Baskota instructed concerned officials to recommend rewarding those engineers who complete their work prior to the given timeframe so as to encourage other engineers to speed up their works.



He at the same time he also threatened to terminate contracts of contractors who fail to complete the work within the given timeline.



The inspection team also found some irregularities at different sites. In some places sidewalks were not built, electricity poles and debris from the demolition of buildings had not been removed.



The team also instructed the contractors to work as per the plan of maintaining green city and to create roads friendly for physically-challenged people.



Secretaries from various concerned ministries such as the ministry for physical planning and works, the ministry of forest and soil conservation, ministry of local development, finance ministry, senior police officials and officials from various concerned offices including the Kathmandu metropolitan office, department of roads and Nepal Electricity Authority, among others, were part of the inspection team.



As the team briefed Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai about the findings of the field inspection later on Saturday, the prime minister instructed the team to strictly continue the inspection in the days to come as well.

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