Damauli, January 28
As many as 6,750 trees are being cut down in an expedited manner along the Tanahun section under the Muglin-Pokhara road expansion drive.
Tress along the right and left sides of the road along the Prithvi Highway are being chopped down.
The chief of the Muglin-Pokhara road project (eastern section), Narendra Subedi, says his office has started cutting down the trees along the road section to expand to four lanes. Around 50 per cent of trees from Jamune to Aanbukhaireni along the eastern section have already been chopped, he adds.
Out of 3,163 trees that should be chopped down along the Jamune-Pokhara section, 1,800 trees have been cut down so far. Activities to shift electric poles and remove huts would be carried out after cutting down trees.
The road project would hand over the trees to forest offices after chopping down, says Assistant Forest Officer Kashi Raj Pandit at the Division Forest Office.
Prithvi Highway that links Kathmandu and Pokhara was built with Chinese assistance and was completed in 1974. Being one of the busiest highways in the country, it faces frequent traffic jams. The highway traffic along the Muglin-Pokhara road is expected to ease once the project is completed.
In October 2019, the Asian Development Bank had approved a loan of $195 million to upgrade the 81-km Pokhara-Aanbukhaireni section of Prithvi Highway into four lanes. The government is supposed to invest $59 million into the project as a counterpart fund.
