CHITWAN, Jun 4: Breaking a rocky terrain to construct road is an uphill task.
Similarly, Mugling-Narayangadh road expansion project is going on since the past three years. It is said that the work is at its final phase. According to the project details, only 450-meter road section has remained to be blacktopped. In April of the year 2015, it had been projected that the road widening project would be completed within years.
Aaptar-Mugling road expansion was partitioned into three segments before the work was initiated. The 33.2-km-long road construction has been led by three different construction companies.
BLA-ACC was assigned for a 10.5 km road stretching from Aaptar to Dasdhunga. Similarly, Wood Hill Lama JV is responsible for 10.7 km-long Dasdhunga to Simal Taal road section, and Supreme Rautaha JV from Simaltaal to Muglin which is 12.1 km long.
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As the construction companies failed to meet the set deadline, the project costs have also gone up.
In the initial agreement, the estimated budget was Rs 2.89 billion while the current expenditure comes around at Rs 3.2 billion.
Even though the project is near to completion, there are still a lot of work to be done such as road widening by blasting rocks, surface smoothing for blacktopping, safety barrier construction, drainage installation, wall building, second and third level of road blacktopping, among others.
Another essential segment of this project is bridge construction. Altogether there are 18 bridges to be constructed from Mugling to Narayangadh. It is almost certain the travelers have to face troubles and difficulties if the road expansion does not align well with bridge construction.
Among the 18 bridges, only four bridges - at Dasdghunga, Mouri, Khani and Jalbire - are in progress.
Two of the project's leading companies are responsible for those four bridges construction within 21 months.
This road block is highly prone to landslides. Around Rs 140 million has been spent for landslide prevention such as gabion, bio-engineering and rock bolting.
