Infrastructure Development Minister Sunil Lamsal has announced that Rautahat stranded projects contracts terminated three works in Rautahat, and that the remaining work will proceed through a new process. The announcement, made on November 1, 2026, covers two long delayed bridges and a highway upgrading project, all of which had stalled despite years of work and repeated deadlines.
The two bridges are the Lamaha Khola bridge under the Chandranigahpur-Gaur road and the Laukaha Khola bridge on the Chapur-Sukdev Chowk-Laukaha road section. Both bridges had been stranded for about 10 years. Local people using both routes had long faced travel hardship because the crossings were never completed, leaving journeys longer and less reliable, especially when river crossings became difficult.
Rautahat stranded projects contracts terminated after a decade of delays
Both bridge contracts were signed on 2073 Chaitra 21 with Pappu and Shivshankar JV, Garuda, Rautahat. The agreements required completion within 2075/76. Repeated extensions pushed the final deadline to 2080 Ashad 30, but construction was still not completed. Despite those extensions, the works remained unfinished, and the contracts were therefore terminated.
The third project is the road upgrading and rehabilitation of the Dhansar-Bagmati section of the Mahendra Highway. Although a contract was signed for that section, physical progress within the last fiscal year was zero. That contract was also terminated, bringing the total number of terminated contracts in the announcement to three.
What happens next for the three projects
With Rautahat stranded projects contracts terminated, the focus now shifts to what happens next. Termination ends the existing contracts, but it does not by itself finish the works. The remaining construction will proceed through a new process, which will allow the authorities to arrange fresh arrangements for completing the bridges and the highway section. For travellers in Rautahat, the practical question is whether that new process moves faster than the stalled contracts did, because unfinished bridges and an unrehabilitated highway section continue to affect daily travel, access to markets and services, and the movement of goods.
Stranded contracts matter beyond the paperwork. When a bridge remains incomplete for years, communities must rely on alternative routes or temporary crossings, and road users face added time, cost and uncertainty. When a highway upgrading project records no physical progress over a fiscal year, the expected improvement in road condition does not arrive. Ending a contract that is not delivering, and starting again through a new process, is therefore presented as a way to break a long period of inaction rather than to continue extending deadlines.
A wider push against stalled contracts
The decision also fits the minister’s stated nationwide position. Under that position, stalled projects that show a basis for completion will get a final chance. Where no such basis is shown, the contract will be terminated and the remaining work will be finished through a new process. The Rautahat stranded projects contracts terminated here are part of that wider approach. The same approach is reflected in other recent contract termination cases reported on this site, including the Mechi Corridor contract termination and the Achham road contract termination.
Source: Minister Sunil Lamsal’s Facebook post, November 1, 2026