Evaluation of western part of Mid-Hill Highway project

KATHMANDU, July 4:

Achievements in the track-opening and road upgradation in the western part of Pushpalal Lokmarg (Mid-Hill Highway) are at satisfactory levels but little progress was made in building retaining walls, gravelling, and bridge construction, an evaluation report shows. Blacktopping of a 1,108-km-stretch that spans from Patibhanjyang of Nuwakot to Jhulaghat of Baitadi is yet to be started.

The report, commissioned by National Planning Commission (NPC), was carried out by mobilizing 25 government officials in three districts of Baglung, Rukum and Dailekh. The team, divided into three units, had surveyed 164 households near to the roads, had 11 focus group discussions, and discussed with 32 concerned officials during the evaluation.

The report, unveiled on Friday, says that 89 percent of the people reported that the highway -- though still under-construction -- has eased transportation woes while 56.1 percent said transport costs have gone down.

Likewise, 42.2 percent of the respondents said the highway had played a role in income increment while 21 percent reported that job availability had increased owing to the undergoing road construction and also said that new businesses and enterprises have emerged because of access to the road. 32.5 percent of the people said an increment had been observed in agro products.

This is the first time that NPC on its own has carried out an evaluation of the project, changing its practice of procuring the third-party evaluation. NPC has also envisioned carrying out of more evaluation of projects in its preparation for the NPC restructuring plan.

"This is something more than NPC's usual monitoring and has assessed the outcome of the road," Tirtha Dhakal, joint secretary of NPC, said.

The evaluation team also found negative impacts like of environmental imbalance as well as rise in road accidents. So far, out of the total estimated project cost of Rs 14.38 billion, Rs 3.18 billion has been spent.

Speaking at the launching of the report program, NPC vice chairman Govind Raj Pokhrel said NPC was no more engaged in the micro-management and the evaluation was one of its efforts to start reforms. "Ministries also carry out similar evaluations on top of their regular monitoring tasks," he said.

The evaluation report also suggests for people's participation in the project, and calls for addressing right of way as well as settlement of the land acquisition problems. The evaluation report has also revealed that big contractors had won the contracts but had passed the jobs on to other small contractors.

Source: Republica