WB's US$ 45M for 650km new roads and 10 bridges

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Lalitpur, October 28

The International Development Association under the World Bank is ready to provide US$ 45 million over a period of three years for constructing 650km of new roads and 10 motorable bridges in rural areas of 30 districts of Nepal.

“The negotiation between the government of Nepal and WB has recently reached to conclusion,” said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD. “The agreement will be officially signed between the Ministry of Finance and WB soon,” he added.

The negotiation was held on October 20 and 21 at the Office of the WB. Shyam Prasad Mainali, secretary at the Ministry of Local Development represented from the government of Nepal, according to the MoLD sources.

Thapaliya said US$ 24.75 million will be a loan while US$ 20.25 will be on grants. “The budget will be spent on the infrastructure development of 30 districts through the Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agriculture Roads (DOLIDAR) of MoLD,” he said. “The government of Nepal will additionally provide 10 per cent of the total budget while District Development Committees will add about another 10 per cent of the budget,” he added.

Thapaliya said that the total budget would reach to about US$ 60 million for the project. “The budget will be used to construct 650Km of the new roads and 10 motorable bridges. Some of the amount will also be spent on the maintenance of the roads,” he said.

A total of 1,560,170 people will benefit from the project in 30 districts. They are Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardiya, Banke, Surkhet, Salyan, Dang, Pyuthan, Arghakhachi, Gulmi, Kapilvastu, Rupandehi, Nawalparasi, Palpa, Syangja, Kaski, Tanahu, Dhading, Nuwakot, Makwanpur, Parsa, Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha, Udayapur and Saptari.

According to the negotiation draft, among US$ 45 million of the budget, 31.20 million dollar will be spent on dry season rural roads, small community infrastructures, key motorable river crossings, and road maintenance.

Similarly, US$ 6 million will be used for rural trail bridges, 1.50M dollar for goods, $3.90M for consultants’ services and trainings, .60M dollar for incremental operating costs and $1.80M is unallocated yet. “The closing date of the financing is December 31, 2013,” said the negotiation paper of the WB.