Army seeks Rs 280m for mountain road projects
KATHMANDU, JUN 16 -
The Nepal Army (NA) has asked the government for Rs 280 million to continue work on the project to build roads to the district headquarters of Mugu, Dolpa and Manang. The amount includes the cost of opening the track and upgrading the alignment to feeder road standard in these three mountain districts.
Besishahar-Chhame in Manang (68 km), Nagma-Gamgadhi of the Karnali Highway in Mugu (93 km), Jajarkot-Dolpa (116 km) and Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track (76 km) are the road projects that the NA has planned to continue in the next fiscal year.
The programme and budget assessment submitted to the Department of Roads by the NA states that Rs 220 million will be needed for opening 18 km of track and upgrading a 14 km stretch of the Jajarkot-Dolpa road. The NA is working to complete track opening on 48 km of this road within the current fiscal year which ends in one month’s time. The NA said that the 14 km track of the road to Dolpa has to be upgraded as it is narrow and was opened without use of machines through the Decentralised Rural Infrastructure and Livelihood Project (DRILIP).
“We will complete the track opening of the road to Gamgadhi, upgrade the track of the Besishahar-Chhame road to feeder road standard and hand over the projects to the government by the first six months (mid-January 2013) of the next fiscal year,” said Col Udav Bista of the Directorate of Development and Military Engineering Service of the NA. He added that Manang has almost been linked by a road, however, there were landslide problems at two locations.
In the next fiscal year, the NA will have to open the remaining 5 km of track connecting Gamgadhi with Nagma. Similarly, the NA will have to cut through hard rock by blasting and upgrade the road to Chhame, Manang to feeder road standard. A total of Rs 30 million each has been sought for the Besishahar-Chhame and Nagma-Gamgadhi roads.
The track opening work of the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track road has not moved ahead as per the plan as land owners could not be compensated on time. Of the total 76 km of the proposed express highway, the army has opened 54 km of track including a service track.
Even though the government had aimed to complete track opening within the current fiscal year, it has not happened mainly due to a land acquisition problem in Khokana of Lalitpur where 8 km of the road project falls.
“There is a problem in Khokana, but track opening on the Makwanpur section will be completed,” said Dinesh Prakash Basnet, project manager of the Fast Track Project. According to Basnet, the Ministry of Finance is releasing Rs 390 million in a week to distribute compensation.According to the department, the NA is preparing to hand over the Devsthal-Kainkanda-Chaurjahari and the Musikot-Burtibang road sections to the government in a month.
Of the road projects assigned, the NA has handed over the Chhinchu-Jajarkot and Beni-Jomsom road sections to the government.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
