Tika R Pradhan

Bhaktapur, March 3:

The Bhaktapur District Development Committee is preparing to allocate budget for the Detailed Project Report in the next fiscal year to give shape to the decades-old concept of the Ring Road. “We have kept the Ring Road in priority list and decided to allocate budget for DPR in the next fiscal year,” said Gopalji Shrestha, the local development officer. Shrestha said the DPR would help the DDC to approach the donor agencies to make the dream come true as the DDC alone cannot construct the Ring Road that costs a large sum. According to an overseer, Binod Khanal, the Ring Road was conceptualised 19 years ago.”The preliminary survey was conducted a decade ago and the demarcation of the Ring Road was done in 2001,” he said. Since the past three years, the DDC is allocating a limited budget for the Ring Road.

In the first year, the DDC had allocated Rs 54 lakh out of which Rs 23 lakh was spent on purchasing a bull-dozer and the remaining amount was spent on infrastructural development.

The 54 km Ring Road, which is twice as long as the Ring Road of Kathmandu, has most of its parts already functioning as most of the roads have been included in the Ring Road. It also include some parts of the Araniko Highway. Another overseer, Sarita Upadhyay, said the Ring Road would touch all the 16 VDCs and Madhyapur Thimi municipality but not the Bhaktapur municipality. The DDC has constructed retaining walls at some places. “Rs 19 lakh was allocated for the fiscal year 2059-60 while only Rs 15 lakh was allocated for this year,” said Khanal.

Upadhyay said that some sections of the Ring Road are yet to be constructed. This year, the DDC has constructed nine culverts as part of the Ring Road at various places, including Sipadole, Chittapol, Tathali, Nangkhel, Duwakot and Bageswori Muhanpokhari.

The proposed Ring Road will pass through Lokanthali (Araniko Highway), Kaushaltar, Balkot, Sirutar, Dadhikot VDC-1, Biruwa-Tankhagal, Gundu VDC, Katunje Suryabinayak, Sipadol, Doleswor Mahadevsthan, Nangkhel, Palase (Araniko Highway), Sanga, Chittapol, Sallaghari, Tathali, Nakachhap, Khawabhanjyang, Bageswori, Muhanpokhari, Telkot Bhanjyang, Khaling, Changu Pauwa, Budhathoki Gaon, Narayantar, Jhoukhel, Duwakot, Saraswotikhel, Bode, Nagadesh, Magargaon, Purano Thimi, SOS Balgram and Lokanthali.