Damauli, January 28
Trees are being cut down in an expedited manner along Tanahun section of the Prithvi Highway under Muglin-Pokhara road expansion drive.
Chief of Muglin-Pokhara road project (eastern section), Narendra Subedi, said that they have started to cutting down the trees along the road section to construct a four-lane roadway.
Around 50 per cent trees along Jamune to Aanbukhaireni along the eastern section have already been chopped, he added.
Meanwhile, 1,800 out of 3,163 tress along the Jamune-Pokhara section have already been cut down.
The road expansion project has been forwarded dividing it into two section-Jamune-Aanbukhaireni and Jamune-Pokhara. A total of 6,750 trees is palnned to be cut down.
Activities to shift electric pole and removing huts would be carried out after cutting down trees.
The road project would hand over the trees to forest offices after chopping down, said Assistant Forest Officer at the Division Forest Office, Kashiraj Pandit.
The map of this road was prepared in 1969. It is being expanded to a four-lane highway with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) due to the high traffic.
Prithvi Highway that links Kathmandu and Pokhara was built with Chinese assistance and was completed in 1974.
The expansion of the 80-kilometre road is contracted out by dividing it into two sections. The contract for upgrading of the 41.45 kilometres Aanbukhaireni-Jamune eastern sector has been given to China Communication Construction while the contract for the 39 kilometres Jamune-Pokhara western section has been given to a Chinese company- Anhui Kaiyuan Highway and Bridge Company.
The contract for the Aanbukhaireni-Jamune East section is worth Rs 6 billion 213 million 113 thousand while the contract for the Jamune-Pokhara western section is worth Rs 7 billion 404 million 600 thousand.
The highway would be expanded 25 metres on both sides. It will be 41 metres wide when passing through dense settlements. As per its design, it will be 41 metres wide in Damauli and Dumre Bazaar of Tanahun while it will be 46 metres wide from Dulegaunda to Khairenitar Bazaar as well as from Kotre Bazaar area and from Gagangaunda to Pokhara of Kaski.
New bridges would be constructed in place of the existing bridges when the road is expanded into four-lane. Accordingly, 31 new motorable bridges will have to be constructed in the 80 kilometres distance from Aanbukhaireni to Pokhara.
In October 2019, the Asian Development Bank had approved a loan of $195 million to upgrade the 81-km Pokhara-Aanbukhaireni section of Prithvi Highway into four lanes. The government is supposed to invest $59 million into the project as a counterpart fund.
