60% construction of Siddababa Tunnel completes

By Rekhiram Rana.Tansen, Aug. 21: Almost 60 per cent work has completed on the Siddhababa Tunnel along the Siddartha Highway, with 51 per cent financial progress. Since the tunnel breakthrough six months ago, invert and lining activities have been progressing rapidly. 

The invert work has been completed in the main tunnel and at all three bypass entrances.

According to Krishna Raj Adhikari, Head of the Project Office in Butwal, 994 metres of lining work has been completed out of 1,089-metre-long tunnel. He said that the lining work in the main tunnel and the three bypass entrances are in its final stages. Specifically, 129 metres of lining has been completed at the first bypass entrance, eight metres at the second, and 104 metres 

at the third.

Following the completion of the tunnel breakthrough in the first phase, the second phase, involving invert and lining work, was initiated. 

The project has now indicated that the lining work under the second phase is nearing completion. Once the lining is completed, work will commence on the outer portion of the tunnel.

Project Information Officer Sabita Gyawali informed that slope protection works will be carried out on both the northern and southern ends of the tunnel in the areas vulnerable to landslides. According to her, this will help prevent landslides from above the road and stop rocks hanging from the hills from falling.

To stabilise the rocks on the north and south sides of the tunnel, 17,060 square metres of slope construction is required, out of which 3,500 square metres have been completed so far. 

Similarly, 1,860 square metres of slope construction is required in the area of the lower Tinau River along the road, as mentioned in the contract. However, no work has been done in that section so far.

Despite loss of life and property in Tinau’s Dobhan Siddhababa area of the Palpa–Butwal section of the Siddhartha Highway due to landslides and rockfalls, the government had initiated the plan for tunnel construction. Work is being carried out to make a four-kilometre stretch of road in the Siddhababa area free from landslide risk.

Once completed, the tunnel will significantly ease travel to and from Palpa, Gulmi, Arghakhanchi, Syangja, Baglung, Rupandehi, Myagdi, and Kapilvastu districts.

In February 2022, a contract worth Rs. 7.34 billion was signed with the Chinese company China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited, to complete the project within five years. Gyawali said that the company is currently working to complete all remaining work within the next one and a half years.