Deadline of Fast Track project may be missed, says Army

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, July 19: Nepali Army has said the completion deadline of the Kathmandu Tarai-Madhes Fast Track (KTFT) Project could be extended by several months along with cost overrun if the land acquisition problem is not settled in time. 

Speaking at a press conference organsised by the Nepali Army Headquarters on Thursday, Technical Brigadier General and Chief of the Project Bikash Pokhrel said that deadline of the Fast Track Project which ends in mid-April, 2027, could be missed if the Project has to work on preparing and endorsing supplementary environmental impact assessment (SEIA) of the land and forest areas where land pooling and compensation distribution works have not been completed. 

Except the Detail Project Report of the project, the NA has now been forced to do SEIA in some places of the project area and in some places, the government has not yet settled the land acquisition problem, especially in Khokana and Bungamati areas of Lalitpur, said Pokhrel. 

Project Chief Pokhrel said that the Army is, however, dedicated to complete the project within the set deadline (mid-April, 2027) if all the problems are addressed in time.

According to Pokhrel, for its smooth operation, the project needs to acquire 17,651 ropanis of land. Of that, 5,487 ropanis belong to private individuals. So far, the government had pooled 4,811 ropanis of land.  The government still has to pool more than 394 ropanis of land in different parts including the Khokana area. The government has yet to pool more than 165 ropanis of land area in Khokana and distribute compensation for 206 ropanis of land of Khokana village. 

The present total cost of the project is Rs. 211 billion, Rs. 2 billion less than the initial cost of Rs. 213.09 billion. 

The integration of a tunnel into the project contributed to a reduction in the project’s overall length and subsequently the total cost as well.

The project that began on April 25, 2017, has achieved 35.38 per cent physical and 36.66 per cent financial progress as of the mid-June, 2024. 

According to Pokhrel, the project had spent Rs. 64.62 billion as of mid-June, 2024 since 2017. In the fiscal year 2023/24 only, the project office had spent Rs. 17.86 billion out of total allocated budget of Rs. 17.98 billion, he said. 

The government has allocated Rs. 22.54 billion for the new fiscal. 

Project Chief Pokhrel said that as provisioned in point number 34 of the budget speech of 2023/24 which reads ‘after the approval of the EIA, if there is a provision to receive approval for forest area use and tree felling from the government of Nepal within 15 days, the project construction work will be easier, said Pokhrel.

He said that there is a risk that if the tree cutting and land acquisition are not completed on time, the builder/contractor may claim compensation as well as extension of deadline.