Focus is on completing overdue projects: Minister Shrestha

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Apr. 11: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Biraj Bhakta Shrestha has said that the government’s immediate focus will be on completing long-delayed and troubled projects rather than launching new initiatives that could increase the country’s financial burden.

He made this remark during a discussion with officials of the Department of Water Resources and Irrigation on Friday.

Emphasising that solutions would be sought by categorising problems, Minister Shrestha instructed officials to carry out tasks that can be resolved at the ministerial level itself, and to ensure results are visible through performance at their respective levels of responsibility. 

 “In the remaining three months of the current fiscal year, let us all work together so that the public can feel improvement and see results.”

He stressed the need to jointly consider what improvements can be made in financial, governance, and structural aspects, and to achieve targets by making maximum use of capacity, skills, and budget. 

Minister Shrestha said that the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations on development projects is yet to be fully seen, and urged everyone to focus on the timely completion of projects.

He expressed concerns that large projects have remained incomplete for years, questioning who actually benefits from such delayed development. 

He also pointed out that irrigation projects remaining incomplete for three decades is a matter of concern. He questioned whether the budget alone is truly the main problem in development projects.

During the discussion, the secretary at the ministry, Sarita Dawadi, emphasised that national pride projects and other projects should not be treated in the same manner in terms of execution. 

She added that issues such as land acquisition and tree cutting are common problems in development projects, and that national pride projects should be given special priority.

The department currently has national pride projects such as the Babai Irrigation Project, Sikta Irrigation Project, Rani Jamara Kulariya Irrigation Project, and the Sunkoshi–Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project, among six such projects in total.

At present, the Department is implementing various projects through 215 contracts. 

Among them, 33 contracts are problematic, and 22 have been terminated, according to Director General Mitra Baral.

The Department’s overall financial progress for the current fiscal year stands at around 29 per cent.