China has said that it will start upgrading a section of the Galchhi-Trishuli-Rasuwagadhi Highway from October. The route connects Nepal’s central region with the northern border with China.

A visiting high level Chinese team has informed the Department of Roads (DoR) that they will begin improving the 18-km stretch from Syabrubesi to Rasuwagadhi in October.

Last week, the Chinese team consisting of officials from the Commerce Ministry of China met with officials of the Finance Ministry and the DoR.

“During the meeting, they said that they were currently in Nepal to conduct various studies to prepare a detailed design of the road,” said Sanjay Kumar Shrestha, chief of the Foreign Cooperation Branch at the DoR. “They will prepare a detailed design of the 18-km stretch which is being upgraded with Chinese aid after their return to China.”

After the design is completed, they will appoint a contractor to do the upgradation work which is scheduled to start in October. The single-lane road will be broadened into a 8.5-metre wide, double-lane highway.  

The Chinese government is upgrading the road section as part of the Rs15.7 billion (RMB 1 billion) bilateral assistance agreement signed between Nepal and China in December 2016. The accord was signed by Leela Mani Paudyal, ambassador of Nepal to China, and Zhang Xiangchen, Chinese vice-minister for commerce, on behalf of their respective governments.

Meanwhile, the DoR has started upgradation and construction work on the remaining portion of the 82-km Galchhi-Trishuli-Rasuwagadhi Highway with the aim of completing it by the March 2019, the deadline set by the government.

The department has completed 10 percent of the work on the 46-km Galchhi-Mailung section. The project office is about to acquire private land and clear forested areas

along the road so that it can be widened.

Similarly, the government has assigned the Nepal Army to open the track of the 18-km Mailung-Syabrubesi section of the highway.

The army is about to complete the track opening and is planning to hand over the project to the DoR by March. Once the army hands back the stretch to the department, it will initiate the process of black topping it.

The project is also about to start the construction of four of the 11 bridges on the highway.

The Roads Department has approved the designs of four bridges prepared by the contractor, and they are about to begin construction while the designs of remaining seven are under consideration.