Mr. Pramod Lamichhane

(Central Member, The Federation of Contractors Association of Nepal)

Res-7. MOV

“Impact in China signifies an impact on the world, as China is an exporting country. It exports everything from raw materials to the final product. Due to the same reason, difficulty in import from China for 4 - 5 months, and almost all of Nepal was affected. After all, it had a direct impact on everyone, including the construction executives.

Despite the COVID-19 impact, the government tried to complete the construction work, but the construction executives and workers faced many obstacles. The cost of construction materials and labour costs has increased a lot. The price of raw materials hiked by 2 - 3 times during the lockdown period.

Similarly, big national pride projects could not operate smoothly and caused a delay in completion. The cost increased, and contractors had to tolerate the loss. The government addressed the issue and extended the deadline by six months, but only two months are available due to the late decisions. Therefore, the time was running out in those two months.

The state should make the payment on time. The priority must be to make arrangements for paying all the construction work given by the government. Thus, a new tender should be opened only after the payment of the old work. The government has invested in bridges, roads, health posts, various multi-purpose buildings, and others. If it is not completed on time, this will be a massive loss to the nation. Contractors have not been able to carry out their work correctly due to non-receipt payment and non-extension of deadlines in many places. For that reason, the government should step forward to solve the problem and extend the term by one year without any demands.”

Mr.Ram Sharan Deuja

(Former General Secretary, The Federation of Contractors Association of Nepal)

Res-8. MOV

“No doubt, a massive impact. It is one of the industries where many workers are engaged for their livelihood. The precautions and health guidelines should be adopted on the construction site. However, immensely challenging to manage the workforce in the construction industry after the COVID crisis. The government was forced to extend the term by six months. Workers from India have not returned yet to work, causing a shortage in the labour market.

In addition, the government imposes a fine for the delay in the project. We face problems in bank interest, machine interest, installments, workers’ salaries, office expenses and rent expenses, and many other similar payments. The construction business has reached a critical stage. This has caused massive loss to the individual contractors and also affected to country’s GDP.”

Mr. A.D. Lama

(Vice-president, The Federation of Contractors Association of Nepal)

Res-9. MOV

“COVID-19’s first case was seen on Jan 13, 2020, in Nepal. Soon after, we were in pain. It was a busy time for construction business people. Hundreds of workers were at the construction site. Of course, there was a rumour a month ago. With the sudden lockdown in Nepal, we could not send hundreds of workers from the construction sites to their homes. However, hundreds of people went to their home walkthrough 5 - 7 days. There is no provision of health insurance. The construction industry is facing a big problem. The first problem is financial issues. The second problem is that after eight months of our work stoppage, the government has not addressed the impact of the price hike adjusting the price.

On the other hand, the local people didn’t allow to enter the outsiders in the construction sites because of the transmission of COVID-19. Locals were skeptical about the idea, saying that if COVID-19 came from outside people, the disease would cause problems. So, the construction work could not start on time. The monsoon started, and again, the works were halted. Again, starting work became a problem due to the festive season. Our work started only in November. During 7-8 months, all our works were paused, and our overhead expenses increased.

The government did not help us in this situation. As soon as the expenses for eight months went up, there was a problem of extension and non-payment. There was also a situation of contract expiration during the lockdown. The government also extended the deadline, but we had to wait until January to implement the decision entirely. As a result, the expiration date of 6 months was extended, but it took six months to extend the term altogether.”