Work has begun to blacktop a key road linking the remote Kailash Rural Municipality of Makawanpur district to the national highway network, more than four decades after the road track was first opened. The project marks the first time that the road connecting the Chepang-majority rural municipality will be blacktopped.

Construction of the track had started 43 years ago, but the route remained unpaved for decades, reflecting the area’s longstanding infrastructural neglect. The road links the rural municipality to the Tribhuvan Highway from Chuniya and stretches about 21 kilometres to Kalikatar, the administrative centre of Kailash Rural Municipality. Authorities say the road is now undergoing expansion and is being upgraded with joint support from the federal, provincial and local governments.

According to rural municipality’s technician Sushant Nepali, blacktopping work is currently underway along a five-kilometre stretch from Chuniya to Namatar Bazaar with an investment of Rs50 million from the federal government.

Meanwhile, repair works are progressing on the section from Namatar Bazaar to Kalikatar. Rural municipality Chairman Lok Bahadur Moktan said the upgrade of the seven-kilometre Bhaltar-Banjhakri segment, funded by the provincial government, has reached its final stage.

The road was initially constructed in the 1980s under a food-for-work programme run through the then District Development Committee. However, engineers say the original survey had been conducted along an unsuitable alignment, which caused persistent technical challenges in completing the road.