Kathmandu, September 19
In a bid to make laws that are compatible with the federal system of governance that the country has adopted, the government has started to amend the Public Roads Act 1974.
“The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT) has started homework to amend Public Roads Act to make it contextual,” said Gopi Prasad Nepal, undersecretary at MoPIT.
“The ministry has started to amend the 44-year-old act so that it encompasses provisions that suit the central, provincial and local level administrations,” he stated. He added that the amended act will also include guidelines regarding the use and maintenance of roads and the taxes that can be collected by the lower layers of government.
As per the proposed new act, the government will classify the roads into local road network, provincial road network and highways, national road network, fast track and some strategic highways. At present, the Public Roads Act only has provision for roads like highways, national roads and strategic roads.
“We are also going to include a provision to link major highways like East-West Highway, Madan Bhandari Highway and Mid-Hill Highway to name a few to the local level roads,” he said.
As per Nepal, after the act is amended, it will be easier to formulate new programmes, allocate budget and draft new laws governing the roads under the new classification.
“We believe that the amended act will help ease the problems regarding construction of roads and it will also be helpful in selecting the priority areas for construction of other infrastructure projects,” added Nepal. “It will also help develop better coordination between the central government and sub-national governments during the construction of vital infrastructure projects.”
Earlier, MoPIT had asked its line agencies to submit suggestions and issues of concern to amend the Public Roads Act. As of now, only Department of Roads has submitted its concerns and suggestions to the ministry.
As per Nepal, the new act will also help increase the greenery along the roads and include a provision to protect the historical areas that lie beside the roads.
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Written by Sandeep
This news first appeared on https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/govt-to-amend-public-roads-act/ under the title “Govt to amend Public Roads Act”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
