Butwal-Narayangadh road building stagnates

By Our Correspondent Nawalparasi, June 19: The construction of Butwal-Narayangadh road, a project of national pride, has reached a stalemate as it has not been able to accelerate.

The Butwal-Narayangadh road section, which was started 34 months ago after the agreement was signed three years ago, could not pick up the pace of construction, according to the project.

The contract was signed on December 19, 2018, and the Chinese contractor started work on February 7, 2019.

The project has said that only 19 per cent of work has been completed so far due to inability to cut down trees and remove electricity poles and drinking water pipes.

During the period of about 34 months, the road was excavated, filled and the bridge was built, said the project.

The Chinese company China State Construction was assigned with the construction of the project three years ago at a cost of Rs. 16.99 billion.

According to the project engineer Ramesh Drishti, the project has not made much progress even though only two months have been left of the agreement despite the agreement to complete the 113 km Butwal-Narayangadh road on July 7, 2022.

The project, which was started with the support of the Asian Development Bank, is a project of national pride, but the project will be pushed back for almost two years beyond the agreement period due to lack of momentum, he said.

He said that the government has been informed to extend the deadline so that the project will be completed by 2024.

The contractor has blamed the government of Nepal for delaying the construction of the project.

Initially, it was mentioned that 9,200 trees would be cut down in the forest area within 113-kilometres of the EIA, but now that the number has increased to 49,860 trees.

The contractor of the project said that the project has not been able to pick up speed as the government side has not given permission to cut the trees.

A total of 36,545 trees had to be cut down from Gaindakot to Daunne and 13,315 trees from Daunne to Butwal. It is said that the tree cutting has been delayed due to the neglect of the national park as most of the projects will be part of the national park to the north.

The project has to relocate 4,839 electricity poles, 1,025 telephone poles, 202 solar poles on both sides of the road, but the project has not been able to expedite due to lack of permission from the government, said project advisor Bhuminanda Dhakal.

The project has 43 big bridges, 39 small bridges, 462 culverts and most of them have been built so far.

Engineer Drishti said that construction work on 11 out of 12 big bridges has been underway recently and work on the Jamire Khola bridge in Binai Triveni will start only after the rains.

According to him, work is underway on 15 out of 22 small bridges.