Reliable Infrastructure

Infrastructure is the key to economic progress and prosperity of any nation. Basic infrastructure such as road, electricity, drinking water, schools, irrigation, hospitals and information technology forms the basis of development.  It gives impetus to economic growth and brings a qualitative change in the life of the people. A sound infrastructure development puts the society on the robust path of progress.  Economists describe two types of infrastructure - hard and soft. The hard infrastructure includes roads and bridges and the soft one is associated with health, social services, environment and culture. New infrastructure development needs to follow the measures adopted to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. Development works, carried out without considering ecology and environment, has negative consequences for the society. So the sustainable development is the need of the hour to take care of the economic development and environment in a balanced way.

As a least-developed country, Nepal is striving to achieve a balanced economic growth to graduate from the LDC status by 2022 and become middle-income country by 2030. This requires allocating a good chunk of budget to bridge the infrastructure gap. A report of World Bank Group states that Nepal should spend around 10-15 per cent of GDP on infrastructure development. Nepal faces various obstacles for rapid infrastructure development. Political instability has led to policy inconsistency and bureaucratic hassles. Lack of coordination between the line agencies, accountability and transparency, mismanagement and irregularities have hampered the timely completion of major infrastructure projects in the country. Moreover, the inability of successive governments to spend the capital budget has also affected infrastructure development. Many a times, dispute on the land acquisition, inadequate energy and fuel supply, inflation, and dearth of private sector investment have hindered the desired level of infrastructure development.

It is necessary to carry out development works as per the requirement of the nation. The national reality and the people’s needs must be taken into account while pursuing big development projects. Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that cost-efficient, standard and environment-friendly infrastructure development is the foundation for new Nepal. Addressing the 60th Engineer’s Day in the capital the other day, PM Deuba noted that engineers should be active to localise and channelise new innovations in science and technology for infrastructure development. No doubt, the engineers play a vital role in carving the development path but they must stick to professional ethics and standards. The government should create an enabling atmosphere for the private sector to invest in the infrastructure development to complement with the government’s infrastructure development efforts. 

The focus should be on the sustainable structures that require fiscal ethics and compliance to building guidelines. According to the news report of this daily, the parliamentary Development and Technology Committee has instructed the government to amend the Town Development, Urban Planning and Building-related Basic Guidance-2072 BS in line with its policy to build green, clean and safe cities. The guidance was introduced in 2072 BS and revised in 2078 BS lately but it still lacks provisions to address the new challenges facing the construction sector. Lawmakers have rightly underscored the need for taking geographical factors into account. Mountains, hills and Terai have different geographical conditions from each other. So the policy makers and engineers should prioritise to construct homes and infrastructure bearing in mind the topographic realities, which will help become resilient to natural disasters.