CIAA chief’s statement on physical infrastructures factually incorrect

Bhrikuti Rai / February 15, 2016

The Maitighar-New Baneshwar four-lane road section pictured in January.                           Photo: Bhrikuti Rai

On February 11, Lokman Singh Karki, chief commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), published an article in Naya Patrika about his experience working at CIAA.

In the opinion piece Karki writes, “Physical infrastructures like roads, administrative buildings, bridges etc built 60-70 years ago are still having to make do as the foundation for development.”

In order to compare his statement about whether or not the infrastructures built several decades ago, in fact are still serving as development foundations in Nepal, South Asia Check compared the situation of infrastructures 60-70 years ago with the present. For this we studied the statistics of infrastructures before 2007 BS, before the start of first five year plan in 2013/14 BS, and the present status.

We found that physical infrastructures in Nepal have witnessed tremendous growth over the last 60-70 years. For example the total distance covered by road networks stood at mere 273 kilometer before 2007 BS which doubled to 624 kilometers before the start of the first five-year plan in 2013/2014 BS. Presently the total road length stands at 80,078 kilometers.  Similarly electricity generation in Nepal also jumped from 1.4 megawatts in 2007 BS to 770 megawatts in 2072 BS.

The first inventory of government buildings in Nepal published in 2033 BS states that there were 4,476 buildings in Nepal.  According to the Ministry of Urban Development’s publication Business Plan 2071, this number rose several fold in the next four decades and reached 371,604 by the end of fiscal year 2068/69.

Therefore Karki’s claim that physical infrastructures built several decades ago are still having to make do as the foundation for development is factually incorrect.

Source: National Planning Commission , Economic Survey 2014/15, Nepal Electricity Authority, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Panchayat Smarika

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