Government Targets Rs 1 Trillion in Infrastructure Contracts This Fiscal Year

The government has set a target to call tenders for infrastructure projects worth around Rs 1 trillion in the current fiscal year, Physical Infrastructure and Transport Minister Sunil Lamsal said Thursday.

Responding to questions raised by lawmakers at the House of Representatives meeting, Minister Lamsal said his ministry's budget for the current fiscal year stands at Rs 286 billion, but the government plans to invite bids for projects worth nearly Rs 1 trillion by adopting a multi-year budget system.

The minister said the government is prioritising multi-year budgeting over the traditional single-year approach. He said grouping similar types of projects , such as roads and bridges,  and processing them together under a single tender would significantly cut the time spent on procurement.

Under normal circumstances, calling a single tender takes six to seven months. But when multiple projects of a similar nature are bundled and processed together, the total time that could otherwise stretch to three years can be reduced to just six to seven months, Minister Lamsal said. He added that this approach would save an additional 12 to 14 months for actual construction work.

The minister also clarified that while budget allocations may appear spread thinly across many projects under the multi-year framework, the purpose is to make project implementation more effective rather than to divide funds arbitrarily.