Army-led track opening to Kimathanka moving fast

By Dhyan Kulung Sankhuwasabha, May 16: The work of opening the track handed over to the Nepali Army is in full swing after a private construction company failed to connect Kimathanka under the North-South Koshi Highway. 

The Nepali Army is working to open a 10.5 km track from Chyamtang to Ghungapa in Bhotkhola rural municipality.

By the end of the previous fiscal year, the army team had cut five metres of rock and opened the track. 

According to the North-South Road Project Office, Khandbari, work is underway to open 2.5 km of track by the end of the current fiscal year. 

Chief of the North-South Road Project Office, Dipesh Rajak, said that work is underway to complete the track within four years of the Nepali Army starting the work. 

At present, 150 regular Nepali Army personnel and about 50 other local workers are working in four sections of the project, said Rajak.

Apex Kanchharam JV, who was chosen earlier to open road track, raised hand after it could not break the rock between Chyamtang and Ghungapa. 

The army has been given the responsibility as explosives have to be used while opening the road track and only the Nepali Army is allowed to use the explosives. The road, which was initially said to be 14 km long, was limited to 10.5 km when surveyed by the Nepali Army. The Cabinet meeting held on May 5, 2019 had decided to hand over the responsibility to Nepali Army.

Of the 317 kilometres from Rani to Kimathanka, the road from Sankhuwasabha to Khandbari, the district headquarters, had already come into operation. Of the 162 kilometres of road between Khandbari and Kimathanka, 10.5 kilometres from Chyamtang of Bhotkhola to Ghungapa is yet to be opened.  Likewise, work is underway to blacktop 45 kilometres of road from Khandbari to Faxinda Dobhan. 

According to the North-South Road Planning Office, Tumlingtar, the 61-kilometre track from Faxinda Dobhan to Barun Dobhan was opened five years ago, and the road improvement work is underway.