Nawalparasi, January 24
Only 45 per cent of the work has been so far completed in Nawalparasi’s eastern section under the Narayangadh-Butwal road expansion project.
Over half of the project work is yet to be completed with about six months left for the deadline to expire, Road Expansion Project’s eastern section chief Ashish Thapa Magar said.
The Narayangadh-Butwal road expansion work was initiated in 2018. Since then, the deadline has been extended twice. The second extension will expire in mid-July.
Magar claimed that 90 per cent of the work will be completed during the period. According to him, the construction company will be responsible for repair for five years even after the construction of the project, so the progress should be 90 per cent by mid-July considering post-construction repair work as about 10 per cent.
“Looking at the current physical progress, at least monthly seven per cent progress has to be made to complete the road expansion work on time. However, the work progress is sluggish, Magar said. “We have been repeatedly instructing the contractor to speed up the work.”
Stating that the human resources and machinery used at present is insufficient, he said that the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, the contractor, is being directed to complete the work within the stipulated time using adequate resources.
Magar admitted that the progress achieved so far is below the expected pace. The Narayangadh-Butwal section of the East-West Highway, spanning 113 kilometres, encompasses approximately 65 kilometres in the Middle East section.
The plan involves constructing a six-lane road in the market area, complete with service lanes. In the Daunne section, three lanes will be established, while other areas will have four lanes. However, only 21 kilometres of a two-lane road have been completed in the eastern section. To complete the project, approximately 125 kilometres of road, excluding the bridge section, still need to be constructed.
As it stands, there are more than 100 kilometres of blacktopping that remain to be done to meet the project’s goals.
“The blacktopping of about 21 kilometres has been completed by calculating the one-way calculation,” the project chief said.
