Miscellaneous
UML: Govt working to award Fast Track to foreign company
The main opposition CPN-UML has warned the government not to assign a foreign company to construct the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track saying that the National Pride Project should be built with domestic resources.The main opposition CPN-UML has warned the government not to assign a foreign company to construct the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track saying that the National Pride Project should be built with domestic resources.
Speaking in Parliament on Sunday, UML lawmakers accused the government of conspiring to award the fast track to a foreign firm on the pretext of not having enough resources for it. In his first speech after taking charge, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said without naming the company that the government did not have sufficient funds to construct the ambitious project. “We warn the government not to invite a foreign firm for fast-track construction. This will cause the state to lose Rs77 billion,” said Keshav Badal, a UML leader.
Revoking the decision of Sushil Koirala’s Cabinet, the erstwhile government led by KP Sharma Oli had decided to construct the 76km Kathmandu-Nijgadh stretch with national resources. The decision of the Koirala government to hand over the project to an Indian developer had landed in a controversy.
The government had planned to finance almost all of the expenses (Rs75 billion of the estimated Rs98 billion) by itself with soft loans from India, going against the general practice of the developer generating the necessary resources. The plan also drew flak for a huge amount of money (a maximum of Rs15 billion a year) the government would be subjected to pay as “minimum revenue guarantee” if the traffic remained inadequate to make profit.
Badal also charged the government with trying to foil, by sending its special envoys to India and China, the deals forged by PM Oli during his visits to the two countries.