Kathmandu Valley Ring Road widening works to start next year
KATHMANDU, JUN 06 -
The widening of the Kathmandu Valley’s Ring Road will start from the next year under the assistance of People’s Republic of China. In the first phase, the current four-lane road of the Koteshwor-Kalanki stretch will be upgraded to eight lanes, according to the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management.
Third Railway Survey and Design Institute Group Corporation, a consultant hired by China, has completed a preliminary design for the Koteshwor-Kalanki section of the road. China has also sought suggestions in the design work from Nepal. Currently, the Department of Roads is studying the design report for the necessary inputs.
“As we are busy with budget preparation for the next fiscal year, we have not been able to concentrate on the design report,” said a senior official at the department. “A team will review it at the earliest and suggest inputs to be incorporated into a final design.”
The design report, submitted to the Ministry of Physical Planning about a month ago, has asked for suggestions within 20 days. Nepal and China had signed an agreement to widen the ring road under grant assistance from China in February last year. However, the work regarding the improvement project had caused the procedural delay.
The Ring Road improvement project will upgrade the current four-lane road to eight lanes, with a four-lane carriageway that will also include a two-way relief road, two-way bicycle track and two-way pedestrian path, including bus stations and parking lots. The road-widening project is expected to be completed by 2015. Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning said that Chinese government was doing the final preparation to call tender for the selection of a contractor for the project. “Improvement work will start from the next fiscal year and it would take three years to complete the entire project,” he added.
Along with the report, the consultant had expressed concern over the borrow pit location advised by Nepal, saying it was far from the project area. Borrow pit is a location chosen to dig gravel, soil, and sand for use in another location. Department officials said that they had suggested Tika Bhairav in Lalitpur as the location for extracting gravel for the purpose.
Similarly, the report had also asked the government to arrange enough space, mainly for the construction of an interchange at the Kalanki junction. “As per the preliminary design, 0.8 km interchange is planned for smooth operation of vehicles at the junction,” said the official at the department. In the road engineering term, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one road to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream.
Under the Ring Road improvement plan, the current 27km-long Ring Road will be upgraded in three phases. Apart from the plan for the main road, according the Ministry of Physical Planning, the detailed design on improvement will also devise plans for management of public utility services lines such as drinking water, electricity, telecommunications wires and demolishing or incorporating roadside physical infrastructure affecting the road widening work.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
