Hetauda-Sindhuli-Chatara-Dharan road: Lifeline of inner Madhes

By Rammani Dahal,Hetauda, Apr. 24: People’s movements and activities have increased in the inner Madhes from Makwanpur to Sunsari, which used to remain mostly deserted in the past, after the strategically important Dharan-Chatara-Sindhuli-Hetauda road came into operation. 

After the expansion of road access, social and economic activities have increased along with the rise and expansion of settlements. The project started under the name ‘Dharan-Chatara-Sindhuli-Hetauda Road Project’ has recently become the lifeline of inner Madhes from Sunsari to Makwanpur district.

After the Terai movement in 2005, when the East-West Highway was blocked, the road from Sunsari to Udayapur, via Sindhuli to Makwanpur, in the foothills of Chure was operated by a few transport businessmen.

The Hetauda-Sindhuli-Chatara-Dharan road was established in the financial year 2007/8. The planning office was established in Kathmandu and was included in the national priority project from the fiscal year 2015/16. The name was changed to Madan Bhandari Highway Project with the decision made on May 20, 2018, when the project was being operated by the Road Department. The project is currently under construction to build a parallel road between East-West Highway and Central Hill Highway to connect east and west.

The construction of the 135-kilometres (km) long road from Basaha in Udayapur to Bhiman of Kamalamai Municipality-9 in Sindhuli was divided into the eastern section and the 115-km long road from Bhiman to Hetauda Sub-metropolis-6 Chaughada was divided into the western section.

Hand-over of west section

The western section of Hetauda-Sindhuli-Chatara-Dharan road has been handed over to the Road Division Office, Hetauda. Most of the construction of this western section, which is 48 km towards Makwanpur and 67 km towards Sindhuli, has been handed over to the road division.

All the work including road paving has been completed, except for a halt due to disputes near Karra Bridge located in Hetauda Sub-metropolitan City-6 towards Makwanpur, near the bridge of Majhi Khola located in Bakaiya Rural Municipality-4 and from Dhura Bazar to Khattar in Kamalamai Municipality. Out of the 39 bridges in this section, the construction of six bridges that were contracted last time has reached the final stage.

Rajesh Yadav, Chief of the Road Division Office, Hetauda informed that the 

work of road and bridge 

construction in the western section has been almost completed and handed over. Stating that the road office would carry out maintenance work of the handed-over area of last February, he told The Rising Nepal that more than 99.9 per cent of the work on this road section has been completed.

Another road section, which was stopped due to disputes, will be started only through another call of contract, he said. 

On the other hand, the part of the Nijgadh-Makwanpur-Kathmandu expressway road section and near Marin Diversion Project, which was halted due to the project, will be constructed by the project itself. One km from Dhura Bazar to Khattar in Sindhuli’s Kamalamai Municipality has been stopped due to disputes including compensation issues.

Earlier, the problem was resolved by providing compensation when the locals obstructed the construction of the road at various places by demanding compensation for the physical structures including houses.

Access to provincial capital increased

With the completion of the construction of the western section of the Hetauda-Sindhuli-Chatara-Dharan road section, the road access of the citizens in Sindhuli and Ramechhap districts with Hetauda, the capital of Bagmati Province, has increased.

Before the construction of Hetauda-Sindhuli road section, the people of Sindhuli were forced to come to Hetauda via Sarlahi, Rautahat and Bara. Similarly, the compulsion of the citizens of Ramechhap to reach Kamalamai and come to Hetauda has been removed after the construction of the Hetauda and Sindhuli roads.

After the construction of the Hetauda-Sindhuli road section, not only the time taken for the citizens of Ramechhap and Sindhuli to reach the provincial capital Hetauda has shortened, but the remote villages of Makwanpur and Sindhuli have started to become more popular, said Santosh Sapkota, a politician at Bagmati Rural Municipality-8, Shantipur, told The Rising Nepal. 

In the past, the residents of Sindhuli and Makwanpur were suffering during the rainy season due to the lack of a bridge over the Bagmati River. With the completion of the bridge construction last year, the movement has become easier thanks to the expansion of road access in the eastern region of Makwanpur and the western region of Sindhuli district.

Engineer Ramesh Pandey of the Road Division Office, Hetauda informed that the Hetauda-Sindhuli road section except for the bridge was constructed at a cost of Rs. 7.10 billion. The construction cost of the 32 bridges of Sindhuli and Makwanpur, which were completed earlier, is Rs. 1.19 billion, with Rs. 190 million for the Bagmati bridge and Rs. 550 million for other six bridges contracted in the final stages.

The road makes villages lively 

With the construction of the Hetauda-Sindhuli-Chatara-Dharan road, access to municipalities has increased. The social and economic life of locals has started to change with the easy movement to urban areas. Construction of new private housing, marketing and other development infrastructure has gained momentum.

Dharma Lamichhane, chairman of Makwanpur’s Bakaiya Rural Municipality, informed that after the construction of the road, the economic activities of Makwanpur’s eastern municipality and other districts have gradually started to increase. 

Now it has become easy for the locals to transport local products including agricultural products. Livestock products are getting reasonable prices and urbanization will increase further, he said.

Engineer Pandey of Road Division Office, Hetauda said that this road built in inner Madhes will be used as an alternative route when the East-West Highway is closed in Madhes Province. Now the compulsion to reach Hetauda by traveling a whole day has come to an end with the construction of the road, he said.

Similarly, Chiz Lal Shrestha of Faparbari Bazar, the commercial centre of East Makwanpur, recalled that he used to walk on foot from Faparbari Bazar until 1993 and said that after the construction of the road, the daily life of the locals had become easier. 

After the flood of 1993, he himself was also thinking to construct the road from Faparbari to Hetauda by hauling mud and stones on a tractor. It used to take 12 hours to reach Heatuda from Faparbari after the construction of muddy road but now it takes just one hour to reach there, he said.

Shrestha said education and health care have become easier, and the road has brought changes in the economic life of the local people after the increase in the price of land.

Similarly, Santosh Sapkota of Shantipur in Bagmati Rural Municipality-8 said that in the past, development was lagging behind due to the lack of road access in the western part of Sindhuli and the eastern part of Makwanpur. This route has become the lifeline of inner Madhes. Now it is possible to go from home not only to market but also to pursue higher education on a daily basis.

The two-lane, 11-metre-wide road has been paved with seven-metre double-layers and two-metre single-layer black sheets on both sides of the road.