Siddhababa tunnel likely to be operational by September

By Our Correspondent, Rupandehi, May 25: The tunnel in Siddhababa area along the Siddhartha Highway is likely to be open for vehicular movement by September if the current pace of the construction works is maintained.

On the physical side, the Siddhababa Tunnel Project has achieved 68% progress so far.

A national pride project, the project started in 2022 with the timeline of five years for completion.

Rajesh Paudel, chief of the project, informed that financial progress of the project has reached 58%. The project is being built on the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) model, under which the construction company undertakes works from the design to construction. The construction company will be responsible for operation, maintenance and safety of the tunnel for a period of five years after the operation. Then will start latent defect liability period (LDLP) from another five years.

The Siddhababa area has been notorious for casualty due to landslides, rock falling during monsoon and obstruction of the road.

The main objective of the project is to offer a safe alternative to passengers instead of shorten the distance of the road.

Works of the project were affected and delayed due to legal and technical complexity in the initial phase as the EPS was being used for the first time. Now, most of those problems are getting resolved, according to the project.

 Along with tunnel construction, other constructions such as safe structures, slope conservation are also underway.