Nawalpur, July 8: The expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal road section has been halted due to incessant rain.
According to project chief of the
eastern section of Narayangadh-Butwal Road Expansion Project Ashish Thapa
Magar, efforts are being made for smooth transport operation rather than
widening the road.
"We have now focused on making
the road traffic easier as the road expansion work could not be carried
out", he said, adding, "The construction company has put its human
resource and equipment to ease the traffic in the areas where the road is
blocked".
He said that the contractor has
been assigned to repair potholes on the road, place pebbles in the area where
the road is slippery due to rain and remove the landslide debris. "The
contractor company had been reducing its resources a week ago since the onset
of monsoon this year", he said, adding, "The work has been halted as
the road expansion work could not be carried out due to rain".
According to project chief Magar,
only 52 percent of the physical progress of the road expansion project – that
began since January 2019 after signing an agreement has been made so far. Of
the 114 kilometers of Narayangadh-Butwal road, 65-km is in the eastern
section.
China State Engineering Corporation
Limited, a contractor, has not been able to advance the road expansion work on
time. After the expiry of the deadline on coming July 23, the company has
applied for project extension for one more year.
"The company has applied for
an extension citing various reasons", he said, adding, "The company
has applied for an extension citing old reasons, including the COVID -19
pandemic that spread at the time of commencement of the work, late approval for
cutting down the trees, delay in shifting the electric pole". Project
chief Magar said that they are in discussion on how many days it would be
appropriate to extend the deadline on the basis of the request by the company.
"The consultant and we work together on the extension of deadline", he said, adding, "We will forward our recommendation to the ministry for timeline expansion".
Though the timeline extension approval
will come before July 23, it cannot be predicted how many days will be extended
for the project, he noted. (RSS)