NAWALPUR, FEBRUARY 7

The expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal road section under the East-West Highway has been completed by only 46 percent in five years since the work began.

The contract of the road project has already been extended twice but the work is far from over said, Information Officer of Narayangadh-Butwal Road Extension Plan, Eastern Section, Engineer Shiv Khanal. Out of the total 114 km road from Narayangadh to Butwal, 65 km road falls in the eastern section.

According to Khanal, the road expansion work has not been able to accelerate due to the fact that the contractors are not working according to the plans they have made. 'We are constantly putting pressure to work according to the schedule and to complete the project on time', he said.

The China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited was given the contract to complete the expansion project to be completed in four years, after starting the work in 2075 B.S.

Meanwhile, contract co-manager of China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limite, Rakesh Jha, said that the road expansion work cannot be completed during the second extension period and that the deadline should be extended by one more year. The road expansion woke was delayed due to various reasons including the current weather that is hampering black topping of the finish section of the road.

The work of moving water supply and electricity poles as well as a 30 KV transmission lines in Siji, Gandakot and Dumkibas areas are yet to be completed, he said.

After the expansion of the existing two-lane road, the highway will be seven by seven meters on both sides. A service lane of 6 meters each will also be constructed in the market area.

Information Officer Khanal said that the 42.7 km section of the road will have four lanes, while the southern section will have three lanes for about five km. In this section, 12 big bridges and 22 small bridges are under-construction.

The construction of this section started with 85 per cent loan support from Asian Development Bank and the total cost of this section is 9.38 billion rupees.