Traffic congestion on Kalanki-Nagdhunga road riles MPs

KATHMANDU: Lawmakers on Tuesday expressed their serious concern over the poor condition of the Kalanki-Nagdhunga road stretch of the East-West Highway in Kathmandu, pointing out the inconvenience that commuters faced due to severe traffic congestion. They were speaking at a meeting of the Development Committee under the Legislature-Parliament.

Besides, the slow progress on the ongoing road-widening works, the road stretch remains clogged with vehicles for many hours.

As a result, a commuter has to spend up to four hours to travel a distance of seven kilometres from Kalanki to Nagdhunga. Ongoing construction of an underground road in Kalanki have made the situation even worse.

Lawmakers including Ram Kumar Bhattarai, present at the meeting asked Director General of the Department of Roads Devendra Bahadur Karki and Secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Dhan Bahadur Tamang why the government was not serious to address the problems faced by commuters.

Further, the lawmakers drew the attention of the government and stressed the need of completing the widening task and improve the situation of the roads on time.

At the meeting, Secretary Tamang said the construction of tunnel, expressway and safer roads were the priorities of the government.

Department Director General Karki said the Department is undertaking the road improvement efforts with the manpower recruited in 1993.

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