Kathmandu, February 4

The South Korean joint venture company that was contracted to prepare the detailed project report (DPR) of the 76.2-kilometre-long Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track has submitted a draft of the report to the Nepali Army (NA).

The South Korean joint venture company, Yooshin and Pyunghwa, submitted the draft to the Nepali Army on Sunday.

Brigadier General Yam Bahadur Dhakal, spokesperson for NA, informed that the Korean firm had submitted a draft DPR report. “We have received a draft report of the DPR for the Fast Track and we will now examine the report.”

Dhakal further said that the NA will review the draft report within 15 days and suggest the Korean firm to prepare a final DPR. “Our engineering team will examine whether the report is acceptable or not and if necessary we will also provide our feedback and finalise the DPR as soon as possible.”

The Nepali Army had awarded the contract to prepare the detailed project report to the South Korean JV Yooshin and Pyunghwa on October 2 last year at a cost of Rs 101.2 million.

Meanwhile, problems have surfaced in the construction of the Fast Track. In the preliminary study Khokana was selected as starting point for project but locals have objected to that plan citing that construction activities for expressway would negatively affect their culturally rich historic settlements. The locals have demanded that the starting point be relocated.

However, the Nepali Army has said that the starting point for the Fast Track cannot be changed from Khokana. Moreover, the Development and Technology Committee of the Federal Parliament has also suggested that the starting point of the project should not be changed and has asked the NA to go ahead with construction activities.

Dhakal further added that they already have called on the political and administrative leadership to create a conducive environment to begin the construction works.

NA has been assigned the full responsibility to carry out the Fast Track project, which it has segregated into three segments. Out of the 76.2-kilometre-long expressway, it plans to construct 17 km on its own, hire dependable Nepali contractors for 37 km of the stretch and sign up foreign contractors for remaining 22.2 km section, which will include tunnels and bridges.

Though only a width of 25 metres of the Fast Track will be metalled, NA has cleared a breadth of 30 metres. Of the total length, 4.9 km of the Fast Track will lie in Kathmandu district, 7.9 km in Lalitpur, 56.7 km in Makawanpur and 7.6 km in Bara. Meanwhile, NA has already contracted 28 firms for different sections of the project but some works were halted in the absence of the final DPR.