Information Highway Project moving slower than a sloth

Kathmandu / March 7: The Information Highway project to lay optical fiber in 77 district headquarters along with the Mid Hill Highway, launched by the government with an ambitious goal, finds itself in a difficult situation of not being able to spend the budget.

Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) is not in a position to spend even 20 percent of the allocated budget during the five-year period of this project launched through the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund.

Under the fund, a budget of Rs 9.87 billion was allocated for the information highway project of all the three packages.

NTA Spokesperson Santosh Paudel said that Rs 2 billion has been spent on the project during the period up to mid-January of the current year.

This project was started five years ago to lay optical fiber by dividing it into three sections, but the project has not been able to take off due to disputes. Five years ago, the construction was started to complete all the three packages within two years. Although half of the current year is over, the physical progress of the project is negligible.

Negligible progress in laying optical fiber of second section

Out of the three sections that started five years ago, the work of laying the optical fiber in the second section has not yet started. The NTA had launched a plan to extend 2160 km of optical fiber in Gandaki and Lumbini provinces under the second package. The contract for the second section package was signed between the NTA and United Telecom (UTL) on 8 May, 2017.

According to the contract, UTL had to complete the work within two years. UTL got the contract at a cost of Rs 2 billion. The authority canceled the contract on 9 May, 2019 for not working within the stipulated time. The UTL filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the NTA’s decision. An interim order has been issued not to implement the NTA’s decision of not extending the period until the final verdict on the writ petition by the Supreme Court. As the court process of this dispute has not yet been concluded, the work of this section has not been completed.

60.85 percent progress of the first section

The NTA signed a contract with Nepal Telecom on 28 September, 2016 for laying optical fiber under the package of the first section so as to complete the work within two years.

Nepal Telecom started laying optical fiber only from 13 June 2019. Within that project, under Package 1, 2179 kilometers of optical fiber had to be laid in Koshi Province, Madhesh Province and Bagmati Province. According to the NTA, during the period till the mid of January 2079, only 1326 kilometers i.e. 60.85 percent of optical fiber has been laid.

Progress of third package is only 16 percent

The optical fiber laying work of the third section of the NTA has barely made a physical progress of only 16.06 percent. The authority had launched a plan to lay 1,992 kilometers of optical fiber in Karnali Province and Sudurpaschim Province.

Out of this, only 16.06 percent of the work has been completed in the period till the mid of January of the current year. A contract was signed with Smart Telecom on August 19, 2017 to build infrastructure including optical fiber of the third package to be completed within two years.

The authority canceled the contract in mid-October, 2019 after Smart Telecom could not do the work of optical fiber extension during that period. After canceling that contract, Nepal Telecom got the responsibility of extending the third section of optical fiber in mid of December, 2019.

Even Nepal Telecom has not been able to expedite infrastructure construction work. Under this, there was a plan to lay optical fiber from Musikot in Rukum to Jhulaghat in Darchula. An agreement was made with Nepal Telecom for Rs 3 billion. Under the third section of the package, an agreement was reached with Nepal Telecommunication to expand to Karnali Province and Sudurpaschim Province to complete the work within two years.