Kathmandu, July 20

Construction work to widen the Kalanki-Koteshwor section of Ring Road is likely to be completed within July 2018, a year later than the initially fixed deadline.

According to the Kathmandu Ring Road Improvement Project (KRRIP), around 60 per cent of the total work had been completed till the end of last fiscal year, 2016-17.

Gyanendra Kumar Jha, project coordinator of KRRIP, said that almost all the complicated works are about to finish. “The widening process of the five-kilometre Koteshwor-Ekantakuna section of the road is almost complete and the remaining section will also be constructed within the set deadline,” he added.

The work to expand the bridges along the section, which is a

complex part of the project, is also nearing completion. According to Jha, 95 per cent of the bridge expansion work has been completed till date. The project has planned to expand the existing bridges at Kalanki, Balkhu, Bagmati and Ekantakuna.

According to the project progress report submitted by the Chinese firm, Shanghai Construction Group, to the project, it had finished 60 per cent of the total work till July 16. “The Chinese contractor was able to achieve the target set for the end of last fiscal, so we are hopeful that the project will be completed within the set deadline,” Jha said.

Likewise, three out of the 10 pedestrian overhead bridges planned are also about to be completed. The project recently awarded the contract to construct five overhead bridges and procurement process for the remaining two is in the final stage, informed Jha.

The Chinese government has provided a grant of Rs five billion, which includes technical and financial support, to develop the project. The government of Nepal has also invested Rs 160 million in the project in the last two years.

According to Jha, after completion of the construction works, the Ring Road will be 50 metres wide. Along with this, a six-metre wide footpath will also be constructed along the stretch of the entire Ring Road.

The project, initiated in June 2013, was expected to be completed within the end of the last fiscal. But the completion date was pushed back by a year to July 2018 due to the shortage of construction materials, the devastating earthquakes of 2015 and fuel crisis due to the unrest in the Tarai region.