Chitwan, April 22

Rod-anchoring technique is going to be used to widen the narrow points along the Narayangadh-Mugling road.

The contractor and the Department of Road were at odds over installing cantilever on the rocky part of the road near Mugling, but now, the two sides have reached agreement to adopt alternative technology of rod-anchoring in order to widen the road.

According to Narayangadh-Mugling Road Project Information Officer Engineer Shiv Khanal, some 123 metres of the road is narrow at different points. At those points, the road is just seven to eight metres wide. Earlier, technicians had suggested that the road at these points could be widened by installing cantilever, but the contractor company had refused to adopt the technology citing huge expenses entailed.

“As per the rod-anchoring technique, a rod as thick as 25 to 32 mm is drilled into the rock on the base of the road up to one to two metres with the help of a machine and a wall supported by the rod is raised, which allows further widening of the road,” said engineer Khanal.

“This technique could allow us to widen the road by one to 1.5 metres. As for the propping for the widened

part of the road, the wall is raised from five to eight metres below the road depending on the condition of the road,” he added.

Further, Khanal informed that drilling had finished in 20 metres of the road now. “Some 123 metres of the road is narrow and drilling for rod-anchoring has been completed on a 20-metre stretch.

Drilling is going on in the remaining stretch. Once the project is completed, the road will be 11 metres wide from Narayangadh to Sorha Kilometre and nine metres up to Mugling.

By now, 90 per cent of the work on the road project has finished. Of the 33.2-km road, so far black-topping has been completed along a 30-km stretch. “Except for stretches where the road is being widened by using the rod-anchoring technique, black-topping will be finished by the end of April,” the engineer said.