Pokhara’s tourism project mired in controversy

BY NAVIN SINGH KHADKA

Pokhara, Sep.4: A promising project, designed to equip this scenic city with basic tourism infrastructure, is bogged down in controversy making an adverse affect on the ongoing work and slowing its further progress.

While only its first component — drainage improvements — is underway, the Second Tourism Infrastructure Development Project here already faces a bumpy ride ahead. The project’s other missions to be accomplished include solid waste management, sanitation works, road repair, among others.

Of the 17.2 million US Dollars loan provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the project to be implemented at different places, around 400 million Rupees has been allocated for this lake city.

Even if Pokhara Municipality, the executing agency of the project, claims to have finished almost 85 per cent of the five packages of the drainage improvement component, the completed works have invited strong criticism from different quarters. Worse still, the remaining drainage work is moving at a snail’s pace.

The deadline of the project, that began some two years ago, is December 31, 2001.

The constructed drainage is visibly too narrow — compared to what was initially designed — for the long run. Sources at Pokhara Municipality also revealed that the contractors have installed polythene pipes at places where drainage should have been made. "What is worse, many of these pipes are already leaking."

Top officials at Pokhara Municipality, however, dismiss the criticism. "These are baseless allegations especially from those quarters who wanted to pocket money from the project budget but could not," blasted Man Bahadur Gurung, Acting Mayor at the Pokhara Municipality.

Whether the completed works have been up to the mark or not, but the undergoing ones are certainly dragging foot. Delaying the remaining drainage work is what Municipality officials claim hard rocks at different project sites. "Because of these hard rocks, constructors have not been able to excavate for drainage system," said Gurung.

He further charged the government of not paying the due amount to the contractors engaged in building drains in the sites having hard rocks. The government, claimed Gurung, owes the contractors above 10 million Rupees. The government has to bear around 40 per cent of the total budget required in the construction works.

Others smell a rat over the hard rock issue. The first striking question they raise is: Why was the cost of dealing with hard rocks not included in the estimation?

"It is because these areas do not actually have hard rocks. They are all soft rocks," said Netra Pandi, Vice President of the City Committee of Nepali Congress —a political body that has prepared a report on the work progress of the project.

After the report was released earlier this year, officials of Commission of Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Ministry of Local Development and Special Police arrived here to make an on-the-spot investigation. "Our report had pointed out many irregularities in the project," said Pandi.

Going by its past record, the Municipality was initially denied funding by the ADB during the First Tourism Infrastructure Development Project in the mid-90’s. "We had refused to fund then because there were cases of misprocurement," said Richard Vokes, Resident Representative of ADB.

Yet another knotty issue, say independent observers, is the political rivalry here that has held the project hostage. "The Municipality officials and politicians of the ruling party have been at loggerheads and this has hindered the progress of the project’s work."

The 24-member board of the Pokhara Municipality, according to a source, is sharply divided into two camps. Members representing opposition parties UML, ML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party rival the group from the Nepali Congress.

The antagonism has boiled down to the public level. Pokhara Municipality officials narrate stories about locals, many of whom politically motivated, unreasonably obstructing the project works.

As a result, the project has made a poor casting. Of course, the drains, even if they are allegedly not up to the mark, lead to a stream "Firke Khola." But, this stream ultimately gushes down to Fewa Lake — the prime attraction of Pokhara — for whose protection the drainage improvement component was conceived.

The Lake Side—the most visited touristic area in Pokhara — bears a shabby look with its main road having innumerable potholes. Interestingly, the Second Tourism Infrastructure Development Project does not include the repairing of this road.

"It was left out because the locals refused to chip in even 25 per cent of the total budget required for the road repair," said Raju Tuladhar, an ADB official overlooking the project.

Also attracting attention at the Lake Side is the unmanned tourist police booth — just like the tourist information centre at Pokhara Airport.

Equally frustrating are the works that were either completed or left incomplete during the First Tourism Infrastructure Development Project in mid-90s. Some of the roads that were built then have already begun to crumble down.

Above all, a classic case has been the incomplete building of tourist information centre in the last five years. More interestingly, no one knows who would run the building once it is complete.

Other Stories

• NC dispute meaningless, says Nepal
• Puwakhola begins production