Kathmandu, August 28

If everything goes as planned, expansion of the Tripureswor-Kalanki-Nagdhunga road, a crucial section of strategic road network (SRN) in Kathmandu valley will be completed before Tihar — the festival of lights.

Project officials informed that of the total length of 12.5 kilometres undergoing expansion, works related to blacktopping and other finishing have been completed on 11 kilometres.

“Expansion works are going on smoothly. At present, we are giving final touch to the section where blacktopping has been completed,” informed Arjun Aryal, chief of the project, adding that blacktopping across remaining 1.5-kilometre section will be completed within next 15 to 20 days. “We expect the entire expansion work to be completed before Tihar.”

The road section is being extended under two separate packages — Tripureshwor-Kalanki and Kalanki-Nagdhunga.

As per the Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project (KVRIP), the Tripureshwor-Kalanki road is being widened to six lanes (18 metres) from the existing four lanes, which is 12 metres wide. Similarly, Kalanki-Nagdhunga section is being upgraded to four lanes from the existing seven-metre-wide two lanes.

The expansion works also includes development of improved pavement for pedestrians, along with the alignment dividing green belt in the middle of the road.

As per Aryal, works regarding blacktopping almost 400 metres of the road section at Thankot and almost 900 metres at Satungal road section is yet to be completed owing to shortage of bitumen.

However, he assured that the project will soon get the supply of bitumen.

“We are hoping that the weather will be favourable in the future. But in case of continuous rainfall, the project construction can be delayed further,” added Aryal.

Kalanki-Nagdhunga section of Tribhuvan Highway is the main gateway to enter Kathmandu Valley. The traffic congestion in this section has been a major headache due to growth in the traffic volume, which is beyond the capacity of the existing road. To ease the vehicle movement, the government also plans to start construction of Thankot-Naubise tunnel road, according to the budget for current fiscal.

The expansion of this road section is expected to ease vehicular movement to and from the Valley to different parts of the country. Owing to low quality and congested roads, vehicular movement in the Valley has been extremely challenging.