Nepal's pride projects plagued by decades of delays, ballooning costs

Nepal's ambitious infrastructure projects, intended to be national pride and strategically vital, are mired in decades of delays and escalating costs. Many projects launched between the late 1980s and 2000s remain unfinished, with budgets multiplying several times over their original estimates.

Officials point to a range of persistent issues hindering progress. These include insufficient budget allocations, protracted land acquisition processes, delays in obtaining environmental clearances, poor contractor performance, and pervasive bureaucratic bottlenecks. In some instances, complex cross-border water-sharing agreements have further complicated implementation.

The ongoing delays have fueled concerns about the government's capacity to execute large-scale infrastructure development within projected timelines. Despite these challenges, successive administrations continue to announce new deadlines and commit additional funding.

Projects like the Babai Irrigation Project in Bardiya starkly illustrate the scale of the problem. Construction began in fiscal year 1988/89, and despite multiple deadline extensions, the project remains incomplete 38 years later. Its estimated cost has surged sixfold, from Rs2.87 billion to Rs18.96 billion. While physical progress has reached 81 percent, the revised completion deadline has been pushed to fiscal year 2028-29, with officials acknowledging even this timeline is uncertain. The government has already spent approximately Rs17.5 billion on the project, which aims to irrigate 36,000 hectares of farmland.

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The ministry has developed a strategy to complete the project by fiscal year 2027-28. Contracts awarded this fiscal year will run for two years, and an additional Rs 2.5 billion worth of contracts will be issued next fiscal year. All remaining contracts should be completed by fiscal year 2028-29, with a plan to wrap up all project operations within the following year.