KATHMANDU: Giving a sense of the business environment in Nepal to the international investors, the World Bank has pulled out of the 400kv Hetaunda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa transmission line.
It has been over a decade since the project started, but the bank decided to withdraw itself as the project could not run smoothly due to several obstructions.
The World Bank has already spent USD 115 million on the project. The bank had committed USD 138 million immediately.
Now, the government needs to carry out the ambitious project on its own, informs the project chief Shyam Kumar Yadav. “For this, the government has to invest Rs 7 billion from its resources. If the World Bank was there, we would have to invest half of that.”
The government had extended the term of the project four times. As per the recent extension, the project has to be over by 2023.
Major obstructions the project has encountered include disputes with locals about the route and construction sites, approval for chopping down the trees, and weaknesses of contractors.