Bagmati Province govt halts construction of Hetauda-Kathmandu tunnel road

KATHMANDU: Bagmati Province government has halted the construction of Hetauda-Kathmandu tunnel road.

Bagmati Province Chief Minister Rajendra Pandey said that the construction of the road tunnel was halted due to lack of budget.

The Hetauda-Kathmandu tunnel road will be the shortest way to connect the Capital with Bagmati Province.

“The Province government does not have a budget for the construction. We will allow the private sector to construct the tunnel if it invests the money,” Pandey said.

The then Chief Minister of the Bagmati Province Dormani Paudel had started the construction of the Hetauda-Kathmandu tunnel road.

Earlier on May 09, 2018, He had said that the project would complete within two years saying that the tunnel way is a pride of the province.

According to Paudel, the Province government was preparing to announce the tender after completing the detailed project report (DPR).

“This government is against development. The government should not have halted the project,” he said.

Earlier, the private sector had shown eagerness to construct the Hetauda-Kathmandu tunnel road. The then president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Kush Kumar Joshi had led the project.

He had collected money from the locals by registering the Infrastructure Development Company. The tunnel would have come into operation in January, 2017, if the company had done the work as per the agreement signed with the government in 2012. But, the company just collected the money.

Later, the Bagmati Province government decided to construct the tunnel road after the Infrastructure Development Company could not complete the construction within 10 years.

The company had planned to collect Rs 35 billion for the construction of the tunnel. The company had collected Rs 317.6 million from the locals.

The Cabinet had endorsed the proposal to construct the tunnel road in 2012.