Nawalpur (Nawalparasi), December 10: The work on the Narayangadh-Butwal road expansion, a project of national pride, has begun four months after the deadline was extended. The second extension of the deadline for this project, which was supposed to be completed by 22 Shrawan 2079 BS 7(7 August 2022), expired last Shrawan.
The project, which the government extended to complete the construction by 28th Shrawan, has spent about four and a half months without any work. The construction business, which had stopped the expansion work citing reasons such as monsoon and festivals, has started the expansion work from the last week of November. According to Engineer Shiva Khanal, Information Officer of the Eastern Section of the Narayangadh-Butwal Road Project, 323 workers have been mobilized for the road expansion.
“We have received information that the road expansion work has started in the last 13 days,” he said. “Currently, work is underway on the subbase, base, approach road (filling the soil to connect the newly built bridge with the road), construction of culverts, and construction of stone walls.” He said that out of the 16 bridges built in this section, work is currently underway on nine of them and work will begin on the remaining seven soon.
Similarly, out of 232 culverts, 181 have been completed and 14 are under construction, Engineer Khanal said, adding that work is underway to install stone walls on the roadside at nine places. Information Officer Khanal said that the work of subbase and base is being done by demolishing the old blacktop in various parts of Gaindakot, Devchuli and Madhyabindu municipalities. Khanal informed that 11 excavators, two cranes, six rollers and eight graders are currently being used in the road expansion.
“Currently, work is being done to accelerate the road expansion work,” he said. “The construction company has committed to speeding up the road expansion work by adding the necessary manpower and equipment.” Engineer Khanal said that out of the 65 kilometers of road in this section (Gaindakot-Daunne), 35 kilometers of the road have been blacktopped.
Engineer Khanal said that the physical progress of the eastern section has reached 53.15 percent so far and that the construction company is working to complete an additional 3.18 percent in December. He said that work on the road expansion is underway on the uphill section of Chormara forest in Madhyabindu Municipality, and that work on the construction of a ‘subsurface drain’ is currently underway after water seeped from underground, causing problems in traffic operations.
He said that a sub-surface drain has been constructed to drain the water coming out from the ground by digging a pit in the middle of the road, and now this section can be easily used for traffic and road expansion. An agreement was signed between the government and the Chinese construction company China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited in Magh 2075 BS (Feb 2019) to complete the 114-kilometer road from Narayangadh to Butwal by Shrawan 22, 2079 BS (7 August 2022).
The then Prime Minister Keshi Sharma Oli laid the foundation stone of the project, which was contracted in two sections – Narayanghat-Daunne (65 kilometers) and Daunne-Butwal (49 kilometers) – in Butwal on Chaitra 2075(2019). After not even a quarter of the work was completed within the stipulated time, the deadline was extended for the first time to Shrawan 2080(2023) and the second time to Shrawan 2081(2024).
