Nepal Infrastructure 
KATHMANDU: The road department has failed to meet crucial targets in road and bridge constructions during the fiscal year 2022/23. Last year, a total of 1,800 km of new roads was to be black-topped, but only 618 km was completed. Progress is only 34 percent of the original target. The department has managed to spend only 55 percent of the allocated budget.
In the bridge component, the government completed only 282 bridges against the target of constructing a total of 300 bridges during the fiscal year. Similarly, the government failed to achieve targets set for road maintenance. Maintenance was completed on a total of 250 km of roads, which is well below the target of 300 km. The government revised the budget and increased the annual budget to Rs 129.80 billion. Of that, only Rs 71.63 billion has been spent. Bhimarjun Adhikari, Deputy Director General of the DoR said recently held local elections, confusion about substitution budget, construction holiday of contractors, and the impact of Covid-19 are major factors affecting the performance.
