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By Our Reporter

 The Kathmandu-Tarai/Madhes Fast Track project, one of the national pride projects is likely to miss even the extended deadline for completion by mid-April 2027.

Nepali Army is building the project. 

In a press meet last week, the Nepali Army said that the fast track might not be completed by the given deadline for various reasons.

Project chief and Major General Kamal Bikram Shah said that various project hindrances and technical challenges, compounded by the monsoon mayhem in September 2024, are likely to push the project’s deadline further.

“Heavy monsoon rain from September 26 to 28, 2024, severely impacted the project site, particularly in the Makkhubesi and Makwanpur areas, where significant flooding was recorded in the river zone. As a result, project officials had to modify certain physical infrastructures, such as the height of the sky bridge constructed there,” Shah said.

“The geographical terrain of the project site has to be slightly changed due to floods and landslides, forcing modifications in the project’s alignment and infrastructure, particularly the bridges and road sections,” he added.

Likewise, the pending tree-cutting work at the project site has further slowed the progress. Although the government, under the tenure of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, handed over the project to the Nepali Army on May 4, 2017, actual construction work on the Fast Track began only on May 14, 2021, after finalising the DPR designed by a Korean company.

The project includes seven tunnels in the Makwanpur district alone, spanning a total of 10.09 km. However, breakthroughs have been achieved in only two tunnels so far. The Nepali Army is executing the project by dividing the work into 10 different packages, starting from Chobhar (designated as zero kilometre) to Bara (Nijgadh).

According to the project office, the overall progress stands at 38.26 per cent physically and 39.84 per cent financially. The project’s total length is 70.977 km.

When a project being built by the Nepali Army is not completed by the extended deadline, one can easily guess how the projects built by private contractors get delayed.