Huge investment at risk as many projects remain idle for years after construction

By Anil Parajuli

Hetauda, Oct. 29: A huge investment has been put at risk as some projects built by the Bagmati Provincial government for specific purposes have not been operationalised for long. 

The trend of pouring money into projects without concrete plans and procedures has raised concerns that taxpayers’ money might be wasted.

The powder milk factory built by the Bagmati Provincial government two years ago at a cost of Rs. 470 million has so far been limited to trial production. 

The provincial government has not been able to prepare a modality for operating this factory built with such a huge investment.

After the factory was established, the provincial government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development had entrusted the Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) with the responsibility of producing powdered milk from the factory. 

The factory, whose construction began in December, 2019, started trial production from November 2023.

“An agreement has been reached with DDC for testing, and a report has been received for operating the factory last year. Based on that, the operating modality will be finalised after a financial analysis,” said Dr. Ram Prakash Pradhan, Director of the Province Dairy Development Board, Hetauda. 

Even though the report was received last year, the board has not yet decided how to operate it.

According to Pradhan, discussions are still ongoing on whether the provincial government will operate it itself or through a specialised cooperative, private company, milk distribution project or Public-Private Cooperative Partnership (PPCP) model.

“Our weakness is not to make an operating modality while constructing the factory. Currently, there is a problem in operation due to the lack of working procedures. We have not been able to work in a planned manner,” he added.

Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development of Bagmati Province Madhusudan Poudel claimed that the preparation of working procedures for operating the factory are in the final stage.

Vice-President of the Province Dairy Development Board, Hetauda Hari Prasad Poudel said that although farmers should be encouraged to produce milk after establishing the powder milk factory, this has not happened. 

He said that the milk produced by the farmers is not reaching the milk factory because it is consumed in the market.

Anjan Adhikari, acting project chief of the Hetauda Milk Supply Scheme, said that so far, around 4.4 million litres of milk has been processed under the trial and 400 tonnes of powder milk and 200 tonnes of butter have been produced.

"Milk produced in Bagmati Province is consumed in cities including Kathmandu in the province. Milk is kept in stock only when the road is damaged, otherwise there is no need for a powdered milk factory," Adhikari said.

A contract agreement was signed with EG Infra Pvt. Ltd. on December 16, 2020 for the establishment of the factory at a cost of Rs. 412.27 million to complete the construction in one year. 

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons, the deadline was extended three times. 

According to the Province Dairy Development Board, the initial cost of Rs. 412.2 million has increased to Rs. 470 million due to repeated time extensions.

This is not the only project that has been built with a huge investment from the provincial government and is facing problems. 

The situation of the cold storages built by the provincial government is similar to the milk factory. 

It has been six years the provincial government started building cold storages in 12 places in nine districts in partnership with the local level, local cooperatives and the private sector. 

The cold storages, invested with a total of Rs. 1.6 billion, are currently in a state of shabbiness. 

Although six cold storages have been built, they have not been put into operation. 

In addition, the construction of four has not been completed and construction has not even started in two places.

Likewise, the view towers built in nine places in eight districts of the province are also in a state of disrepair. 

A total of Rs. 287.248 million has been spent to build these view towers. They have not been utilised according to the purpose for which they were built.

The procedures for operating the view towers, which were completed in 2020, 2022, and 2023, have not yet been formulated.

The provincial government has spent millions of rupees on the construction of the view towers, but the revenue generated from them has been lost as they have not been put into operation even after years. 

Not only that, the structures have started collapsing as the view towers have not been brought into operation. 

Roshan Kumar Srivastava, Chief of the Tourism Development Project, said that three years after the completion of the construction, the structures of some towers have fallen into disrepair due to lack of conservation due to non-handover.

The operational modalities of the large-scale domestic and industrial products exhibition centre built a year ago on the premises of Bhutan Devi Secondary School, Hetauda-4, with the investment of the provincial government, have not yet been finalised.

Two ministries of the province are currently operating in the building, which was unused until the operational modality was prepared. 

After the ministry building was damaged after the Gen Z movement, the ministry was moved to that building.

The building, which was built not only with the aim of marketing, promoting and displaying locally produced goods but also to support self-employment and skilled manpower development, was temporarily used for other purposes contrary to its intended purpose.

Similarly, although a provincial agricultural wholesale market was built in Thanabharyang, Hetauda Sub-metropolitan City-11, it is not operational due to lack of operating procedures. 

The structure of the agricultural wholesale market worth millions of rupees is in a state of disarray as the Bagmati Province Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has not been able to finalise the operational modalities.

Achyut Prasad Upadhyaya, spokesperson for the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission, said that the problem arose when the project was operated contrary to the plan. 

"The projects built with the investment of the provincial government are in a state of limbo as there is no mention of how the project under construction will be run, who will own it, and how the revenue will be collected from it. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) has become like an estimate, and the problem has arisen because the actual DPR has not been prepared," he said.