In an effort to expedite expansion works, the Narayangadh–Muglin road section will be closed during night time from January 2.

A meeting of all the stake holders and concerned authorities held on Wednesday decided to ban vehicular movement during the night from 10pm till 4am.

Narayangadh–Muglin road project engineer Shiva Khanal said, “We are closing the roads for vehicular movement during the night as we are planning to complete the expansion works of the road section as soon as possible.”

According to Khanal, during the curfew period, passenger bus coming from Kathmandu will be stopped at Muglin while cargo trucks will be held off at Labortar.

Likewise, passenger vehicles coming from Pokhara will stay at Benitar and trucks will stay in Abukhaireni.

“We will hold passenger vehicles and trucks coming from Narayangadh as per the work situation,” said Khanal adding that 800 meters of the roadside cliff is yet to be cut for expansion.

Engineer Khanal further informed that grade cutting in certain parts of the road section will take place during the night. “We will black top the road during the day,” said Khanal, “We will have to stop the traffic from half-and-hour to hour long duration and only one-way vehicular movement will be allowed during that time.”

Similarly, Chief District Officer Narayan Prasad Bhatta said that the night travel ban has been opted to complete the works in the road section as soon as possible. “We will have a trail period of 15 days and if the works move ahead as expected then we will continue it,” said Bhatta, “14 kms of the road section has been blacktopped and 67 percent of the expansion works have been completed.”

The deadline to complete the construction works at the 33.2 km Narayangadh-Muglin section was extended for the third time on July 7. As per the new deadline the construction works at the road section must be completed by February 2018.