Upgradation work of the 16-km Syaphrubesi-Rasuwagadhi road section started on Saturday.

According to the Department of Roads, the road will be upgraded to a two-lane, all-weather highway. This road section makes up the final stretch of the crucial Galchhi-Trishuli-Rasuwagadhi highway linking Nepal and China.

The road is being upgraded with Chinese financial assistance. The road upgradation work officially started on Saturday, Project chief Narayan Datta Bhandari said, adding, “The construction work will gather momentum from October 8. China’s Tibet Tinalu Company Limited has been awarded the contract to upgrade the road.”

According to project officials, the process to provide compensation for the land acquired by the project has already begun. Workers are clearing structures on either side of the road. Around 82 houses and huts, along with 323 utility poles should be removed from the road area.

The Chinese side has assured that the project office that it would be completed within 39 months. The total cost of the project is Rs4.5 billion. As per the bilateral assistance agreement signed in December 2016 between Nepal and China, a portion of the Rs15.7 billion (RMB 1 billion) fund will be used to repair and improve the Syabrubesi-Rasuwagadhi section of the highway.

Likewise, road upgradation work along the Galchhi-Trishuli-Mailung-Syphrubesi-Rasuwagadhi road is scheduled to be carried out in three phases. The road expansion work, construction of the retaining wall and the drainage canal are underway along the Mailung-Syaphrubesi section in the first phase. More than 50 percent work has been completed so far in this section, project officials say. The Nepal Army has also opened the track along the 18-km Mailung-Syabrubesi section and handed over the project to the Department of the Roads.

The Galchhi-Trishuli-Mailung-Syphrubesi-Rasuwagadhi is a national pride project that has been deemed as a strategic road network connecting the southern and northern neighbours. This 82-km highway is key to implementing the Transit Transport Agreement signed between Nepal and China in 2016.