Tripureshwor-Nagdhunga road widening slow due to poor coordination

KATHMANDU: Tripureshwor-Nagdhunga road widening project has been hit had due to a lack of coordination among government agencies.

Multiple structures awaiting demolition along the road section for the widening project are standing tall. The dearth of  coordination among government bodies has been cited as the reason for this.

The 16- kilometer long road will be widened to 22 meters from the existing 16 meters. However, there is no noticeable progress even after a year's passage of the beginning of the project.

According to project Chief Deepak KC, electric and telephone poles remaining within the area covered by the widening project are yet to be removed and the Department of Industry has not yet dismantled its Tripureshwor-based building.

Department's General Director Shankar Aryal shared that they were facing the budget shortage to dismantle its building.

"The Department is not in the position of managing budget to demolish its building and has no objection if the project itself does it," Aryal added.

The Department vacated the building a week ago and shifted to the building owned by Cottage and Small Industries Development Committee.

The Department of Roads ( DoR) telling the same story said though it was obliged to manage the budget for removing electric poles that lie within the area covered by the project, it was currently unable to do this.

Besides this, the project has not been able to accelerate the widening works in some locations owing to Supreme Court's order ( stay order) to keep the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited's tank at Soaltee mode, Nepal's Telecom's underground cable of Nepal Telecom at Dhungeaddha, 184 houses along the roadside as it is.

The Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Friday held a meeting among the authorities concerned including Kathmandu Valley Development Authority, the DoR, NEA and the NT to discuss these issues.

KVDA Commissioner Bhaikaji Tiwari, DoR Director General Gopal Sigdel, NEA Executive Director Kulman Ghising and NT Managing Director Kamini Raj Bhandari pledged to make efforts to clear the hurdles seen in the acceleration of the project.

The OPMCM Secretary Chandra Kumar Ghimire pledged to form a mechanism to seek as solution to the problems.

Locals have the complaints that a delay in the construction of project has really given them terrible experiences. Dust from the under-construction roads blankets their houses in winter while muddy roads in the summer make their surroundings dirty and movement tougher.