Blacktopping begins after four years

Blacktopping started at Kawaswoti area in the eastern section of East-West Narayangarh-Butwal road after four years since its foundation stone was laid.

Blacktopping was done in a 500-meter section of the road a forest area between Kawaswoti (around 30 km away from Narayangarh) and Lokaha.

It may be noted that the foundation stone was laid for the Narayangarh-Butwal road section linking the east-west connectivity on 22 March 2019. Earlier, test blacktopping was undertaken in Harkapur in the eastern and Bhumahi in the western section of the road.

Narayangarh-Butwal Road Project manager Rakesh Jha informed that the four-km section between Kawaswoti and Lokaha would be blacktopped within a week.

According to him, the 7.5-meter wide road towards the north side of the highway was blacktopped in the first phase. "The blacktopping done on Wednesday was 6 cm thick. Additional 4 cm would be added in the second phase which is to be completed by mid-April", he informed.

The progress of the road widening project was only 26 percent by mid-March, the project sources informed. The Chinese Company, China State Engineering Corporation, was implementing the project at a total cost of over Rs 16 billion 995 million. The Asian Development Bank had provided 85 percent of the estimated project budget on loan assistance for the expansion of a 115-km road from Gaindakot-based Narayani River Bridge to Butwal. As per the design, there would be six lanes in settlement areas, four-lane in forest areas and three-lane in Daunne area