Kathmandu, January 19

The Muglin-Narayangadh Road Improvement Project has proposed to halt vehicular movement during the day time to speed up the construction works in the respective road section.

The project has proposed to stop vehicular movement from 10:00am to 4:00pm.

In a meeting with concerned officials at the District Administration Office (DAO) Chitwan, the project proposed to stop vehicular movement for a one-month period from January 26. Earlier, the project had halted vehicular movement in the road section at night time from January 2 to 17.

The DAO has directed the project to submit the progress report and reasons for halting vehicle movement on the busiest road section of the country.

“The project has informed us that the progress made during the night time was less compared to the average progress made earlier. So they have proposed to halt vehicular movement during the day time,” said Narayan Prasad Bhatta, chief district officer of Chitwan.

According to him, the project had achieved an average progress of 0.27 per cent per day before halting vehicular movement at night time. However, the average per day progress dropped to just 0.06 per cent when the road was closed during the night.

“We asked them to submit their overall target and work plan to achieve the target for the next one month,” Bhatta said. “They will submit their action plan within next three days and we will take further decisions based on that.”

In the meeting, Project Manager Chandra Narayan Yadav and representatives from contractors said that due to lack of coordination between concerned parties, the work progress slowed down during the night time. They stated that if vehicular movement were to be halted during the day, the project could achieve significant progress over a short period of time.

Yadav also informed the meeting that overall 72 per cent of the project has been completed till date. The rock-cutting process at three locations — Ghumaune, 16 Kilo and Chepangdanda — will be the major challenge that the project will face in the coming days.

Out of the total 34-kilometre road project, the developer has black-topped 14.7 kilometres of the road section. The meeting of concerned agencies has also directed the project team to complete the remaining works of the project as soon as possible.