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Upgradation of Syabrubesi road to begin in August

Work to upgrade the Syabrubesi-Rasuwagadhi road to a two-lane, all-weather highway will begin in August, the Department of Roads said. The 18-km section makes up the final stretch of the crucial Galchhi-Trishuli-Rasuwagadhi highway linking Nepal and China. Upgradation of Syabrubesi road to begin in August

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Published at : March 31, 2018

Updated at : March 31, 2018 08:32

Kathmandu

The improvement of the Syabrubesi-Rasuwagadhi road is being carried out with Chinese aid. A Chinese delegation will be arriving in Nepal in May with a detailed project report (DPR) for the road, the Department of Roads said.

“After the Chinese side submits the DPR, it will take us eight to 10 days to approve it, and construction will be started immediately,” said Sanjay Kumar Shrestha, chief of the Foreign Cooperation Branch at the department. “The Chinese side will not delay mobilizing the contractor beyond August.”

The original plan was to begin construction in October, but the department asked the Chinese side to begin work by August. “As the road project is of strategic importance, we want to begin construction as soon as possible,” said Shrestha. Although the Chinese side is yet to submit the DPR to the department, there has been a broad verbal agreement that the road will be a two-lane, all-weather highway with a width of 8 metres. The agreement made when a high-level Chinese team visited Nepal in January to conduct a preliminary feasibility study and other tests to prepare the DPR for the road . As per the initial estimate, it will take around three years to complete the project.

Nepal and China signed an agreement several years ago to upgrade the highway connecting the two countries.

In December 2016, Nepal and China signed a Rs15.7 billion (RMB 1 billion) bilateral assistance agreement, and a portion of the funds will be used to repair and improve the Syabrubesi-Rasuwagadhi section of the highway.

Meanwhile, Nepal has started upgradation and construction work on the remaining portion of the 82-km Galchhi-Trishuli-Rasuwagadhi highway. The department has completed around 20 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. The project will acquire enough land to construct a 30-metre-wide road.

Similarly, the government has assigned the Nepal Army to open the track of the 18-km Mailung-Syabrubesi section of the highway. According to the department, the Army is about to complete the track opening.

After that, the department will initiate the procurement process to black top the road. The department is planning to complete the upgradation and construction of the Galchhi-Mailung section by March 2019, the deadline set by the government.