Government efforts to provide power and transport links to cement plants in Nepal have made disappointingly slow progress in the eight years since the commitment was originally made, Republica reports.
The newspaper highlights an official review of the progress of the work that found that just over 60 per cent of access roads had been completed as of last year.
In a mid-term review for the current financial year, the Nepalese government said it was taking forward projects to connect 24 cement plants to their limestone mines, while the building of a new electricity substation would connect 18 plants to the power grid.
Ananda Kesari Pokharel, an under-secretary with the Planning Department of the Ministry of Finance, said that a total of NPR1.2bn (US$11.2m) had been allocated to these projects this year.
“The programme could not be implemented in time as the ministry was unable to allocate huge chunk of money for the purpose at a go,” Mr Pokharel added.
