RAJBIRAJ, MARCH 23

Work for the long-awaited Chhinnamasta-Rajbiraj and Rajbiraj-Rupani road upgradation has started finally with the foundation stone for the projects laid today.

As per the plan, the road linking Saptari's famed pilgrimage site Chhinnamasta to Rajbiraj will be a two-lane road and the other road linking the district headquarters Rajbiraj to Rupani on the East-West Highway will be upgraded to a four-lane road.

Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal Chairperson Upendra Yadav and the federal government's Physical Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Renu Yadav jointly inaugurated the projects at Chhinnamasta and Rupani rural municipalities.

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony, JSP-N Chair Yadav noted that transportation played the second most important role for the uplift of the nation after education, and spoke about the discrimination the Tarai-Madhes belt had witnessed at the hands of past rulers.

'Tarai-Madhes belt was never a priority of the past rulers, even when the major East-West Highway was built, it was built from further north, which is why the belt hasn't reaped as much benefit as it could have,' said the Madhesi leader.

'Not only the road built from further down south would have helped in the development of the Tarai-Madhes belt, but it could also have saved more forests,' he said.

Speaking at the same programme, Physical Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Renu Kumari Yadav informed that upgradation of the Rupani-Rajbiraj road was all set to begin after their initiative ensured additional 400 million rupees for the project.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 24, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.