Construction Law

Bhandari Law and Partners is one of the top law firms with a dedicated construction practice, advising on construction law across Nepal's rapidly developing infrastructure landscape. There's a genuine amount of construction underway here — fast-track road projects, airports, hydropower plants, bridges, roads, and cable cars, with plenty more still at the planning stage — and we've served the entire industry involved in that: project owners, construction managers, engineering firms, contractors, subcontractors, architects, material and equipment suppliers, real estate developers, and government entities.

 

The Legal Framework

Building and construction activity in Nepal is governed primarily by the Building Act, 2055 (1998), which regulates building construction works, sets out the National Building Code, and establishes classification, permitting, and supervision requirements aimed largely at earthquake and fire safety — a priority that matters more here than in most jurisdictions, given Nepal's seismic risk. Construction businesses themselves are regulated separately under the Construction Business Act and related regulations, which govern contractor licensing and classification.

 

Environmental compliance runs through the Environment Protection Act, 2019 (2076), which requires either a Brief Environmental Study, an Initial Environmental Examination, or a full Environmental Impact Assessment depending on a project's scale and nature — larger infrastructure projects, and anything affecting land use, typically fall into the more rigorous EIA category. Public infrastructure projects additionally engage the Public Procurement Act, 2063 (2007), which governs tendering and bid award, and Section 58 of that Act makes arbitration the default route for resolving disputes arising from public procurement contracts where amicable settlement fails.

 

Enforcement of building standards has historically been uneven in Nepal — construction without municipal permit, non-compliance with approved design, and use of substandard materials remain recognized problems even where the Building Act's requirements are clear on paper. For project owners and contractors alike, that gap is exactly why getting the permitting and compliance side right from the outset, documented properly, matters as much as the construction contract itself.

 

What We Do

 

Negotiating and preparing construction contracts

We negotiate and draft the contracts a construction project runs on, tailored to the specific project rather than built from a generic template.

 

Project financing advisory

We advise on the legal side of project financing, working alongside the commercial and banking arrangements a construction project depends on.

 

Bidding and public procurement assistance

We assist clients through the bidding and public procurement process, from tender preparation through to award.

 

Permits, land use, and environmental compliance

We help clients obtain the permits and environmental clearances a project requires, and advise on land use compliance throughout.

 

Project development advisory

We advise across the entire project development process — from initial planning through completion.

 

Bhandari Law works to mitigate risk before it becomes a dispute. Where disputes do arise, our team advises on mediation, arbitration, and litigation, and we've represented clients in construction disputes before dispute adjudication boards, and in both ad hoc and institutional arbitration tribunals. Construction arbitration specifically is an area we keep close watch on, since it's where the majority of high-value construction disputes in Nepal actually get resolved.

 

Our Approach

Our role is to help a project get developed efficiently and cost-effectively — managing risk and, as far as possible, preventing disputes before they happen, rather than only stepping in once something has already gone wrong.