The Federation of Construction Entrepreneurs of Nepal (FCEN) has started a ‘construction holiday’ from Sunday barring urgent work.

FCEN President Rabi Singh said that work on 3,500 projects, other than construction of bridges, road blacktop and river embankment, has been stopped. According to Singh, the prices of various construction materials including petroleum products (diesel, bitumen, petrol, gas), iron-based construction materials, rods, gabion wire, sheets and iron blades have gone up sharply in the last few months.

He said that construction businessmen would not be able to carry out construction work financially unless the price hike was addressed.

“We have repeatedly requested for the issuance of the Price Adjustment Guidance No. 2 of 2008 to address the unpredictable price increase,” he said. “We have started protesting as the government has not addressed the issue so far.”

The federation has requested the construction businessmen to stop all construction work as it is a ‘construction holiday’ until the excessive rise in prices of construction materials is addressed or the price rise is brought under control.