Nepal
The Beni-Jomsom-Korala Road Project office has terminated the current contract for upgrading three of the seven road sections over long delays.
The sections are part of the 110km road – a national pride project – spanning Beni, Parbat and Mustang districts. The road connects Jomsom, Mustang’s headquarters, to the Chinese border point at Korala .
Project chief Jagat Prajapati said that a public notice was issued on November 8 to terminate the contract with the company that had undertaken the road construction in Khanti-Jomsom, Jomsom-Kagbeni and Charang-Chosar sections.
Koshi and Neupane JV was awarded the Rs260 million contract in October 2016 to build the Charang-Chosar and Khanti-Jomsom road sections.
"The contractor did not work on time in line with the contract despite repeated reminders. So we’ve decided to terminate the contract. We will call a fresh tender for the second time," he said.
As per the contract, the 25-km Charang-Chosar road had to be widened by 11 metres along with the works of gabion walls, drains and gravelling by December 2018. However, works in the section have been stalled since 2019.
Although Koshi and Neupane JV has only made 65 per cent progress on the road work, the company has already collected Rs170 million.
In June 2017, the same builder was awarded the Rs.620 million contract for blacktopping the 18-km Khanti-Jomsom section. Progress on this section, too, has been dismal. With only 60 per cent of the work being completed, it has already surpassed the deadline of May 2019.
On October 21, 2021, the project signed a contract worth Rs281.4 million with Rautaha-Atreya-Saras JV for blacktopping the 13-km Jomsom-Kagbeni section, among other road works. A year on, the contractor has yet to start the work. The contract expires on October 21, 2023.
The Kaligandaki Corridor has taken charge of six of the seven sections of the 110km Jomsom-Korala road. One of the four sections – The 12-km stretch between Ghasa-Khanti – along the Beni-Jomsom road, has been blacktopped.
