August 4: The government allocates an annual budget of Rs two to three billion for road improvement across the country. Roads Board Nepal divides the budget among 34 road division offices and five regional offices upon examining the state of the roads in the respective areas. The budget is provided for maintenance on an occasional basis as well as for regular maintenance and for emergency situation. The same budget is also spent on upgrading the roads as well as rehabilitation and restructuring.

Despite the allocation of budget, there has been no progress on timely repair and upgrading of the roads due to administrative weaknesses. The Central Regional Road Directorate under the Department of Roads (DoR) is supposed to work 365 days a year but the condition of roads in the Kathmandu valley speaks volumes about their efforts to maintain the roads.

The roads full of potholes in the capital stand as a testimony to the maintenance works carried out by the government bodies.

Although maintenance of roads in the regular duty of the Department of Roads, the instruction from the prime minister to maintain the standard of the roads shows the ineffectiveness of the government in fulfilling their duties despite having adequate budget.

There are 70 workers in the eastern section of Kathmandu for the maintenance of roads while there are 56 workers in the western section.

There is total of 34 road division across the country out of which 11 fall under the central region. Four of them fall under Kathmandu’s road division. In Kathmandu alone, one division has been assigned to maintain the roads in both eastern and western sections respectively.

Engineer Shiva Hari Sapkota, director of the Central Regional Road Directorate informed that the maintenance of road is being done on a regular basis.

“The problem has seen due to laying of Melamchi water pipes and also due to drainage system,” he said. According to him, the directorate is working to maintain the roads and to complete them by Sept/Oct this year.  The road directorate said it has given high priority in maintaining busy roads used by lots of pedestrian and vehicles.