Budgetary Constraints for Construction of

Transportation Infrastructure in Nepal

Nepal is a landlocked country. Most of the area in Nepal is covered with land & hills. So, Water
Transportation might not be feasible means for transport across the Country because most of the
mountainous & hilly rivers are unnavigable. Air transportation can be suitable means but it can be
expensive for most of the people. Also, climatic condition can become major hindrance at higher
altitude. Considering the topography of Nepal, Land transportation is considered as most suitable
means for safe, rapid, sustainable, convenient, economic and environmentally compatible
movement of people and goods. But initially, capital cost can be expensive for construction of
some land structures like tunnel, bridges etc. for developing country like Nepal.
Transportation has been considered as the most widely acceptable infrastructure than any other
transport. But Nepal being landlocked as well as developing country, it has to face several
problems which are not only limited by topographical aspect but also from financial aspect. Some
major ongoing problem faced by Nepal are Traffic congestion, disconnected modes, inadequate
parking space, budgetary constraint, old technology equipment, environmental pollution,
accidents and so on. Among these, Budgetary constraint has become the major barrier for further
progress in development of transportation.
As mentioned before, Nepal is landlocked country so most suitable transport is land transport and
as most area is covered with hill, construction of tunnel can be highly suitable for rapid and less
time-consuming travel. Not only that, Railway can be the suitable alternative to connect different
transportation modes. Other transportation mode such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), metro rail,
mono rail etc. can be possible appropriate alternative. But construction of structure like tunnel,
railway and initiating new modes like BRT, metro rail etc. can be expensive. As Nepal is also rich in
water resources, numbers of cross drainage structure like culvert, bridge, aqueduct etc. might be
required which may increase the capital cost drastically. Most hills of Nepal are prone to landslide
and can block the land transport during monsoon which may increase the operation and
maintenance cost. So, construction of retaining structure is most for safe transportation but
ultimately it can also increase the overall construction cost too. In city areas, the blacktop road is
laid down after laying the pipe and it get teared up for laying structure like sewer which can be
laid simultaneously while laying the pipe. But due to improper coordination between
management, fund is squandering recklessly in an unplanned manner. Also, in present era, more
and more new technologies are being developed which can make construction work run smoothly,
more precisely and completed shortly. But using those modern technology in time can result into
increase in overall project cost.
We all know that, 10.5 km Kalanki-Koteshwor road expansion project to Kathmandu ring road of
worth Rs. 5.13 billion was undertaken by Shanghai Construction group limited was financially aided
by China. And recently, Government of Nepal has signed an agreement with Hazama Ando
Corporation, a Japanese construction company, on September, 2019 to construct the 2.7 km long
Nagdhunga - Naubise tunnel project. The estimated cost of this project hovers around 22 billion.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing loan assistance of 16 billion at 0.01%
interest rate and remaining only 6 billion is invested for project by Nepal government presently.
As we can see, more than half of estimated cost (16 billion= 72.7% of TC) is provided as loan by
foreign agency to execute the project. It signifies that Nepal is heavily dependent upon foreign
country to run heavy projects.
In present days, construction of tunnel and railway has become most sophisticated means to
provide linkage between state, city and village. There are many other feasible
projects(topographically) which are not being executed due to the limitation of budget. In future,
Government of Nepal should focus on allocating its budget in a prior manner more efficiently so
that proposed project can be executed without any obstruction. Also, proper coordination
between the various governmental local bodies should be taken into account so that fund can be
used in an effective manner. In present scenario, CIAA should take appropriate measure to punish
low level government officer to high level government officer equally so that bribing of money can
be controlled and can be used productively. Not only that, Nepal should focus on promoting
tourism industry, exporting agriculture goods and providing proper platform for entrepreneur for
its development of economic growth.