By Development Bureau/TRN
Kathmandu, Jan. 18: Moving along the Chure hills above the plains and through inner Terai, construction of the Madan Bhandari Highway, which connects the eastern to the western part of the country, is gathering momentum. A majority of sections under the route have already been blacktopped, with Detailed Project Reports (DPR) being prepared for the remaining sections.
The highway will open many new roads while connecting existing ones with other major strategic routes along the way. The Madan Bhandari Highway will extend from Nepal’s eastern border across the Mechi River, passing through the Chure Range and the inner parts of the Terai before finally reaching the western border to the Mahakali River. The total length of this highway is estimated to be 1,250 kilometers. Of this, 465 kilometres are being constructed by other projects under the Road Department and Road Division Offices.
The Dharan-Hetauda section of this highway, which was approved by the Government of Nepal two years ago, on May 22, 2018, is expected to be completed within the current fiscal year. Within the 250-kilometre of the said section alone, 80 bridges have already been constructed. Chief of the Madan Bhandari Highway Project Directorate Umesh Bindu Shrestha informed that an agreement has been reached to construct additional 18 bridges, which is aimed to be wrapped up within next three years.

Construction in full swing
In much the same vein, paving and upgrading of roads are in full swing at various parts of the region, including Dang. With the finalisation of the demarcation lines abutting the highway, the government aims to complete this project by 2025.
The eastern point of this highway is Bahundangi in Mechinagar Municipality of Jhapa. Starting from there, the road navigates across Sunasari’s Dharan to Chatara, Udayapur’s Gaighat-Katari, Makwanpur’s Hetauda, Rampur of Palpa, Ridi-Tamghas of Gulmi, by crossing Pyuthan, Tulsipur, and Sahajpur before reaching the highway’s final frontier at Rupal.
Work at the 318 km Dharan-Chatara-Gaighat-Sindhuli-Hetauda segment began back in 2007/8. Currently, construction is underway on the 135-km east section (from Basaha in Udayapur to Sindhuli) and the 115-km west section (Bhiman-Hetauda). A separate office has been set up in Damak for the construction of 135-km (Bahundangi-Dharan) highway, but it remains without human resources.
“We are now looking to staff the office with skilled and capable employees as soon as possible,” said Shyam Kumar Yadav, chief of the Madan Bhandari Highway Project Office, Damak. With mounting pressure to finish the highway in the next three years, Hom Bahadur Thapa, central member of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) who is also a development expert of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, has been in constant talks with the Madan Bhandari Highway Project Directorate to propel swift preparation of the DPRs.
A maximum amount of work has been accomplished along the Dharan-Chatara-Gaighat-Sindhuli to Hetauda up until now with 100 km already blacktopped of the entire 134-km-long segment running from Chaudandi Municipality-4 of Udayapur to Sindhuli’s Bhiman, as per the Madan Bhandari Highway Planning Office at Gaighat. Shankar Poudel, engineer and information officer at the Gaighat-based office, said that work is underway to complete the Bhiman-Basaha section of the highway from Saptakoshi to the west in the next one-and-a-half months.
Until now 43 bridges have come into operation with the construction of the approach road still pending in this section of the highway, which had already begun four years ago.
Bel Bahadur Bhujel, Chief Division Engineer of the project, said that the road construction work is finally gaining momentum after almost one-and-a-half months of dormancy following the lockdown restrictions imposed to curb the COVID-19 contagion.

Project unperturbed amidst pandemic
Even amidst the risk of the pandemic, construction work has gained full speed. To ensure speedy completion of the 115-km road from Kamalamai Municipality-9 of Sindhuli, to Hetauda Sub-metropolis-6, Choughda, the section has been further divided into two parts: 48 km towards Makwanpur and 67 km towards Sindhuli.
As per Arjun Aryal, chief of the western section of the project, pavement of the 82-km of the 115-km long road in the western section including the bridge has been completed. The construction of the bridge connecting Makwanpur and Sindhuli districts on the Bagmati River, which started in the fiscal year 2068/69, has been delayed since the last fiscal year.
Apart from the Bagmati bridge, out of the 33 bridges allotted in the highway’s western segment, including nine in Makwanpur alone, 31 have already come to fruition.
According to Shashank Mishra, head of Madan Bhandari Highway Planning Office, Gulmi, preparations are underway to pave a 27-km road from Ridi of Gulmi to Balkot of Arghakhanchi under the local Lumbini province. He informed that the Tamghas-Simaltari road of Gulmi has been included in the Madan Bhandari Highway while the DPR of the section up to Arghakhanchi and Pyuthan is in the process of preparation.
The Lumbini area residents have expressed grievances regarding the delay in the project, which was implemented by the government three years ago. Kamal Raj Bhattarai, a local of Palpa, Rampur, said no work had been done in the area so far.
The Surkhet section of the highway, on the other hand, has been entangled in an endless web of environmental assessments and DPRs. Engineer Sajana Pokharel, Information Officer, Road Division Office, Surkhet, said, “No discernible progress has been made with regard to the Madan Bhandari Highway as we are still awaiting the DPR.”
The environmental assessment of the 139-km section from Botechaur bordering Salyan to Bhedabari Dhaliabit has been submitted to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport but has not been approved. An environmental assessment of the 94-km section from Baddichaur to Benighat border of Doti is also awaiting approval.
Apart from the Madan Bhandari, three other highways are under construction parallel to the Mahendra Highway connecting the country’s east to the west. While a Postal Highway is currently being built on the south of the Mahendra Highway, on its north, construction of the Pushpalal (Mid Hill) Highway is ongoing.
As the fourth highway, Madan Bhandari Highway is considered an important alternative to the historic Mahendra Highway for the prosperity of the Chure Hills and the Inner Terai.
Expressing his views, Arjun Aryal, Chief of the West Block Project, said that upon completion, the Madan Bhandari Highway project would prove to be a lifeline for Nepal’s fertile inner plains.

(With inputs from Bhauch Prasad Yadav, Shaurya Kshatri (Kathmandu), Bishnu Prasad Pokharel (Damak), Bhakti Bilash Pokharel(Gaighat), Ram Mani Dahal (Hetauda), Rekhiram Rana (Palpa) and Lalit Basel Surkhet).