Construction of Benighat-Larke road, which will connect Nepal with Tibet of China, is ongoing at a snail’s pace mainly due to the shortage of budget and difficult topography.

Track has been opened up to Pangsing, which lies at ward 3 of Chumnubri Rural Municipality in northern Gorkha. Nepal Army has opened a 36 km track from Hawadanda to Pangsing along the 154 km long Benighat-Larke road.

The government started constructing the road from Benighat, which lies along Prithvi Highway, to Larke Pass, a border point between Nepal and China. The Department of Roads opened a 62 km track from Benighat to Hawadanda a few years ago. The federal government in 2017 decided to hand over responsibility to Nepal Army for the construction of the remaining 92 km road stretch from Hawadanda to Larke.

With the opening of a 36 km track by Nepal Army, a total of 98 km road has now become motorable. The road construction is underway in the remaining part.

Along with the track opening work, the Department of Roads is upgrading the already opened track. “Around 10 km of road from Arkhet to Hawadanda will be blacktopped shortly,” said Amindra Khadka, chief of Gorkha Road Project. “We are at the final stage to invite a tender for blacktopping work after the Finance Ministry ensured financial resources for a multi-year contract to upgrade the road.”

The ministry guaranteed the financial resource of Rs6 million for road blacktopping work in the current fiscal year 2024-25. According to Khadka, the road project office will repair roads in other sections in the current fiscal year.

The Nepal Army started track opening work from the Hawadanda area in 2017. After completing the 36 km track from Hawadanda to Pangsing, the army continues track opening work northward from Pangsing by dividing the area in four sections.

According to Purna Chandra Dhakal, the Nepal Army Major of road construction taskforce, the track opening work is currently underway at Pangsing, Nyakphedi, Rubinala and Pewa areas. “There is hard rock in around 90 percent of the area where the track opening work is underway,” Dhakal said. “Construction work is underway by carrying out blasting.”

Nepal Army is also working to install a Bailey bridge over the Machhakhola in Dharche Rural Municipality-5.

Construction of bridges is going on in some other places as well. Motorable bridges are being constructed in Arkhet, Soti, Chheparekhola and Naulikhola with the budgets provided by the federal and provincial government.

The government allocated a total of Rs70 million budget in the current fiscal year for track opening work of the Nepal Army. The local people complained that the government did not allocate enough budget which slowed down the track opening work. They demanded to prioritise the Benighat-Larke road project and release enough budget to expedite the work. It is estimated that around two kilometres of track would be opened with the budget released in the current fiscal year.

The local people living in the northern parts of Gorkha have to struggle to manage food and other essential goods due to lack of roads. The Chum Valley area is still disconnected from road networks and its residents rely on mules to carry food grains and daily essentials. The area is hit by food shortage every year.

After the opening of the track up to Pangsing, walking distance for the people living in the northern Gorkha has been shortened while prices of daily essential commodities have decreased a bit. Track is yet to be opened at Bihi, Prok, Samagaun and Larke Pass.