KATHMANDU, May 10: In a bid to identity access roads to highways and halt random urban road construction, the Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agricultural Roads (DoLIDAR) under the Local Development Ministry (MoLD) has been rigorously updating the District Transportation Master Plan (DTMP) in 30 districts.
“We are updating the District Transportation Master Plan, with assistance from the Rural Access Improvement Project funded by the World Bank, in 30 districts as per the present priorities in urban roads and to identify access roads to the highways,” said Senior Divisional Engineer and Chief of Planning and Foreign Aid Coordination at DoLIDAR, Jivan Kumar Shrestha.
As a pilot project, DoLIDAR already completed updating the DTMP in seven districts--Morang, Jhapa, Shankhuwasabha, Sindhupalchowk, Parbat, Dadeldhura and Dailekh--some seven months ago. The pilot project was conducted under the Road Access Program (RAP) funded by the British Government´s Department for International Development (DfID).
MoLD had laid out a plan to update the existing master plan in all 75 districts as implementation of the latter was ineffective and random roads were constructed in various districts without meeting technical standards.
Under Secretary at MoLD Ramesh Kumar Adhikari said the main purpose of updating the master plan was to draw up a clear picture of the road network, upgrade non-engineering roads to engineering standards and improve the quality of urban roads.
“The problem occurred after village development committees (VDCs) across the nation started issuing road construction budgets for roads not identified under the master plan,” Adhikari said, adding, “Frequent government changes also resulted in multiple and non-technical urban roads in urban Nepal”.
MoLD on average records up to 15 urban road construction proposals every day.
Adhikari added that the increasing size of development budgets and constrains in technical manpower led to construction of multiple roads that do not meet technical criteria.
Updating the master plan includes basic training for dozer users and orientation of urban communities as well.
Meanwhile, MoLD is mulling the slogan of ´Construction, connection, all-weather operation´ for work from next year to make urban roads all-weather.
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