Road expansion may conclude in 2 months
KATHMANDU, MAR 04 -
The ongoing road expansion campaign in the Kathmandu Valley, initiated a few months ago, is likely to conclude within two months.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattrai has directed all the stakeholders, including Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) and Kathmandu Valley Town Development Implementation Committee (KVTDIC), to accelerate and complete work within a couple of months without further ado. The sluggish pace of expansion has turned roads ugly and dusty.
Electricity poles alongside roads and spider web-like electric wire elsewhere have hindered gravelling and blacktopping work. The prolonged negligence of stakeholders in resuming construction work after bulldozing illegal structure alongside roads has make many roads and footpaths unsightly. According to DIG Ganesh Raj Rai, reconstruction and blacktopping of the razed roads has already begun in some areas. He said construction work would resume in other routes as well.
According to official, Prime Minister Bhattarai has directed authorities to gravel and blacktop roads in various sections, including Maitighar-Tinkune, Kamalpokhari-Kalopul, and Bijuli Bazzar-Naya Baneshwor. Similarly, Kalimati-Balkhu, Kupondole, Lainchaur, Padmodaya-Kalikasthan, Ranipokhari- Maharajgunj routes will also be gravelled and blacktopped very soon. PM Bhattrai himself has played the lead role in managing budget and forging coordination among stakeholders to ensure continuity of reconstruction work.
“The Prime Minister has asked us to continue the expansion campaign and complete the work in time. We are planning to work accordingly,” said Ganesh Raj Rai. Officials are planning to shift the existing electricity poles and telephones wires within two weeks and relocate them within the end of this Nepali year.
Acting on the direction of the Prime Minister, all offices, including Ministries of Energy, Information, Nepal Electricity Authority, and Nepal Telecom are jointly working to speed up work. Officials have also decided to wrap up the remaining bulldozing work along Kamalpokhari-Ganeshwor route.
A whopping Rs 450 million has been allocated for the road expansion drive. PM Bhattrai has called on officials not to nip the road expansion drive in the bud for want of budget. He has also directed the Ministry of Physical Planning and Construction to manage required budget. The government also wants to expand the Lazimpat-Budhanilkantha route.
The Prime Minister’s dream to widen roads and complete construction by the end of Chaitra may not come true, as Shyam Kharel, chief of the road expansion drive, said reconstruction of most of the roads cannot be completed within Baisakh. He said that they could finish blacktopping just few small roads in the given period. “It will take three months just to finish the process of bidding. How can we complete the work within two months?” questioned Kharel.
He informed that they have just stepped up the initial process of the bidding work.
Kharel estimates that it would cost more than Rs 450 million to finish the construction of all roads. The government has planned to broaden roads in all five municipalities of the Kathmandu Valley and 37 VDCs aspiring to be municipalities in near future. Officials say the demolition move is in line with the government decision in 1976, which was revised again in 1988. According to the Department of Road, the breadth of main highways, ring roads, main roads and sub roads must be 50, 62, 22, and 14 meters respectively.
The government wants to convert the Tinkune-Maitighar section an international standard road by making a separate lane for pedestrians and cyclists among others facilities.
Source: Kantipur
