Both tunnels at Dhedre, Makawanpur, along the under-construction Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway have achieved breakthroughs.

A 1.728-km-long tunnel (Kathmandu-Nijgadh) achieved a breakthrough on Monday. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli pressed a switch to detonate explosives for a breakthrough. A 1.653-km-long tunnel (Nijgadh-Kathmandu) breakthrough on the expressway was achieved on May 24.

It is the fourth tunnel breakthrough in the Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway which connects the capital city with Nijgadh in southern Nepal with a 76-km highway.

Both tunnels at Lendanda have also achieved breakthroughs. A 1,612-metre tunnel, one of the twin-tube tunnels in Lendanda, located in Bakaiya and Gadhi rural municipalities of Makawanpur, made a breakthrough on July 4. Earlier, on May 24, a 1.653-km-long tunnel breakthrough was achieved.

Twin tunnels, the longest in the project, are being constructed at Mahadevtar. Of the 3.3 km of tunnel (Kathmandu-Nijgadh), 2.28 km have been cleared. Similarly, of the 3.32 km of tunnel (Nijgadh-Kathmandu), 2.09 km have been cleared so far.

The Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway, or fast track, connects the capital city and Nijgadh in southern Nepal. Once completed, it will cut the current travel time by several hours. With 11 km in bridges and six km in tunnels, the expressway is more complex than any road construction project Nepal has undertaken before.

The Nepal government formally handed over the project, under the Department of Roads, to the Nepal Army on May 4, 2017. The Army started building the multi-billion-rupee project in August of the same year, with a four-year completion target.

So far, the expressway has made overall progress of 35.38 percent.