The Kanti Lokpath, a key road linking Hetauda and Kathmandu, is set to reopen on Sunday morning following the installation of a Bailey bridge on the Makawanpur side of the Bagmati River.

Project chief Ratnalakshmi Bajracharya confirmed that the bridge installation will be completed by midnight Saturday. “Even if it takes until 12am, we are committed to bringing the Kanti Lokpath back into operation by Sunday morning,” she said. Workers and engineers have been working around the clock since Wednesday.

Around 50 workers and technicians, supported by three excavators, have been deployed for the past four days to complete the installation. Gabion walls are also being constructed to protect the newly installed structure, according to engineer Sajan Neupane of the road project.

The Makawanpur span of the Bagmati bridge was washed away by a flood in the last week of September last year. Since then, a temporary track made of sand and soil helped the road to remain partially operational. However, repeated monsoon floods damaged those makeshift paths, prompting the authorities to set up a Bailey bridge as a reliable solution.

To install the 24.4-metre-long, 5-metre-wide bridge, the Kanti Lokpath project had suspended all vehicular movement for four days, from Wednesday to Saturday.

During the closure, vehicles travelling between Hetauda and Kathmandu were rerouted through Kulekhani-Kalanki-Humane or Kulekhani-Sisneri-Pharping roads.

The new Bailey bridge reconnects Baguwa in Makwanpur’s Bhimphedi Rural Municipality-8 with ward 2 of Bagmati Rural Municipality in Lalitpur.