Optical fiber laying in Gandaki and Lumbini section under Madhyapahari Lokmarg opened
The road for laying optical fibre has been opened in the Gandaki-Lumbini section under Madhyapahari Lokmarg.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition filed by United Telecom (UTL) against the decision of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority to cancel the contract, opening the way for laying optical fibre.
In the year 2074, the Nepal Telecommunication Authority mobilized the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund and entrusted UTL with optical transmission in Gandaki and Lumbini provinces under the information highway construction project.
According to the contract, UTL had to lay a total of 2,117 kilometres of optical fibre, including 1,482 kilometres underground and 636 kilometres of ADSS within 2076. For that, UTL took 400 million peschi.
However, the authority cancelled the contract after the company did not start the work even when the contract was supposed to be completed.
After UTL went to the Supreme Court against the decision of the authority, the Supreme Court gave an interim order to the authority not to implement the decision.
The work of laying optical fibre on the Gandaki-Lumbini section of the Madhyapahari Lokmarg was stalled due to the suspension of the work and on the contrary, a case was filed against the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and the Authority.
After the case was not resolved for a long time, the Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, after taking charge of the ministry, repeatedly requested the court to prioritise the case on behalf of the ministry.
Then on Tuesday, after the Supreme Court rejected all the writs, the way was opened to advance the campaign further to develop the Madhyapahari Lokmarg into an information highway.
In addition to this, the Supreme Court has also rejected the demand of UTL to cancel the correspondence asking the Authority and the Government of Nepal to pay the remaining dues. This has also opened the way for UTL to recover all dues owed to the Government of Nepal.
