'Mid-Hill Highway can be reduced by 150 km'
KATHMANDU:
The total length of the Mid-Hill Highway can be reduced by at least 150 km, which will bring down the construction cost, save travel time, and reduce vehicle operating cost, according to the Department of Roads.
The department’s preliminary feasibility study report has identified Myanglung, Basantapur in Terhathum district, Jajarkot, Doti and Baitadi as potential areas from where shorter routes can be developed to reduce the total length of the highway.
The Mid-Hill road project is currently being executed based on the proposed length of 1,776 km, which includes the existing routes of the other highways, feeder roads and new road alignments. Citing that the highway is winding and long, the government is carrying out a survey by hiring consultants to check on possibilities of slashing down its length by changing the alignment and building tunnels.
“The preliminary report says that we can bring down the total length by 150 to 200 km,” said Arjun Jung Thapa, deputy director general at the Department of Roads (DoR). “We are expecting the draft feasibility reports from the consultants within a month, which will identify more
locations and give further information.”
Two consultants, Integrated Developments and Research Services (IDRS) and Beam Consultant are preparing the feasibility report. IDRS has been assigned the task of studying the portion east of Pokhara, while Beam Consultant will study the section to its west. The study is scheduled to be completed by the first three months of the next fiscal year 2014-15.
Reducing the length of the proposed highway has been felt necessary to bring down the cost of construction, save travel time and vehicle operating cost. DoR officials estimate that if the government manages to reduce the total length by around 200 km, the highway development cost will come down by around Rs nine billion.
The detailed project report (DPR) of the Mid-Hill road conducted in 2011, had concluded that if the government follows the 1,776-km alignment, the highway would cost Rs 43.38 billion. DoR officials said that they were expecting the total length of the road could be reduced to around 1,400 km. The current length of the Mid-Hill road links 24 mid-hill districts of the country and is estimated to service over seven million people.
Based on the old alignment plan, the government is currently putting its effort to complete the track opening. A section of around 300 metres at Kada, Jajarkot is yet to be cleared to complete the track opening work. The government will continue working in old alignment plan for now and will adopt new alignment and tunnels in the future, according to DoR.
The DPR of the highway conducted by Tech Studio of Engineering had also recommended adopting alternative alignments at some sections and conducting a detailed study of proposed alignments before using them as new alignments. In this fiscal year, the government has allocated a total of Rs 1.92 billion for the highway project to complete track opening, gravelling, bridge construction and black topping on some sections of the highway.
Source: THT
