A high level committee formed under Vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Min Bahadur Shrestha on Monday submitted its report to the Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal stating that Nepal itself could construct the Nijgadh-Kathmandu fast track.

The government had formed the committee on December 22 in order to take suggestions on the appropriate modality and mobilisation of financial resources for the purpose. The committee was assigned the responsibility of suggesting on whether to accept or reject the detailed project report (DPR) prepared by Indian company IL& FS in this connection.

The committee had the tenure of one month to prepare the report. It may be noted that the proposed contractor Indian Company IL&FS was slammed for charging toll tax from motorcycle-riders entering Kathmandu from Nijgadh.

While receiving the report, PM Dahal shared that the committee timely submitted its report adding that he had recently made an onsite inspection of the proposed fast track project sites. He further shared that with the committee report, the confusion on whether Nepal could or could not construct it with own resources has been ended and the construction works will begin soon.

Similarly, the coordinator Shrestha submitting the report said that it was prepared and submitted as per the mandate given by the government.

The report has suggested that the existing DPR of Indian company could be used to save time and expenditure and Nepal Government could annually allocate Rs 10 billion to 20 billion for the purpose. The report has further suggested the government to set up the office for the purpose by the government itself. RSS