Kush Kumar Joshi, chairman of Nepal Purbadhar Bikas Company Limited (NPBCL) that had received approval from the government to develop the ambitious Kathmandu-Hetauda Tunnel Highway, has resigned from his post amid intense pressure from investors for the delay in generating necessary resources to develop the project.

According to an NPBCL board member, Joshi resigned on Sunday and his resignation letter was noted at the company’s office on Monday. The company has called a board meeting on February 10 to discuss the resignation. Joshi did not respond to the Post’s repeated calls.

There has not been any substantial progress towards generating necessary resources for the construction of the highway that costs an estimated Rs35 billion, said the board member.

With the company failing to take concrete steps towards constructing the project, a group of dissatisfied investors led by former board member Raju Man Maharjan had been protesting since the last one month demanding Joshi to step down.

“The protest was directed against the supposed delay in generating resources and a lack of transparency on the use of the collected money,” added the board member. The company has so far collected Rs290 million from locals of Makwanpur district and institutional investors for the tunnel highway. The proposed highway will be 58-km long and will link Kathmandu with Hetauda, an industrial and transportation hub in the South, within an hour.

Being developed as a 4P initiative—private, people, public and partnership—under the Private Financing in Build and Operation of Infrastructures Act, the highway is the first major road project undertaken by the Nepali private sector. However, the NPBCL has always struggled to manage the resources.

The NPBCL which had signed the final (concession) agreement with the government in May 2013, was supposed to complete financial closure within one year and begin construction work. It did submit the financial closure document on May 2014 but the government rejected it stating that the funding plan for the project was not convincing. The company then submitted a new financial closure document on March 2015.

In between, there were agreements with TBI Holdings, a group promoted by non-resident Nepalis and three Canadian companies—Canada’s Infrabanx Corporation, Shej Global Canada, and Global Financial Associates Canada—to collect funds for the project.

The TBI Holdings had agreed to invest Rs1 billion while Canadian companies had signed a ‘master agreement’ to finance $280 million. However, the board member said that there has not been any progress towards acquiring resources from them although a loan agreement was expected to be signed with these companies.

Struggling to attract greater investments, the NPBC had also cancelled the Rs1 million ceiling set for institutional investors.

The boardroom bickering is not new at the NPBCL. Back in 2013, Bikram Pandey, the then board member of NPBCL, had resigned from his position citing “irresponsible decisions” taken by Joshi. Pandey had accused Joshi of misusing his power and resources of the company for personal benefits, allegations which Joshi outrightly had rejected.