Karnali provincial government constructing 1,000 access roads

Karnali provincial government is constructing 1,000 secondary roads this year alone.

The secondary access roads are under construction in order to expand the road access to the settlements in the province which are still out of road connectivity.

The provincial government is stressing building secondary roads as a majority of the population in the province is out of reach of road connectivity. Among the 1,000 roads, some are new projects while some are carry-over ones that were started in the previous fiscal years.

Bhim Bahadur Karki, the Information Officer at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, said the number of minor projects of road construction has decreased this year compared to the previous years after the provincial government decided not to implement plans with a cost of less than Rs 3 million.

The Ministry has earmarked Rs 8 billion for the construction of physical infrastructures such as roads and bridges. However, there is a shortage of human resources for the construction of physical infrastructures.

The Physical Infrastructure Offices in seven out of the 10 districts in the province are currently being run by the officiating chiefs. It is said the Ministry is short 60 per cent of technical human resources out of the total 221 positions. Karki said the Ministry has written to the Public Service Commission to fulfil the vacant posts in the Ministry.

The locals have complained that although more and more roads are constructed every year, they are not regularly repaired and upgraded, and this is causing damage to the environment.