To facilitate the construction of the project, the government has opened three field offices at Janakpur, Birgunj and Nepalgunj this week. [break]
“India has recently completed the process of awarding contracts. Now that the field offices have been opened, we hope that construction will begin soon,” Tulsi Sitaula, joint secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, told myrepublica.com. He further informed that the government was constructing 40 bridges along those roads at the cost of Rs 4.5 billion.
The government had allocated Rs 400 million for the purpose in fiscal year 2009/10.
The Indian government has agreed to provide an assistance of Rs 8 billion for the construction of 20 roads having total length of 600 km. The roads are expected to strengthen linkage of district headquarters and strategic locations on East West Highway southern most parts of the concerned districts.
The project covers Jhapa, Morang, Saptari, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Bara, Parsa, Banke, Bardiya and Kailali.
Construction of 50 km road in Jhapa, 22 km in Morang, 18 km in Saptari, 92 km in Dhanusha, 57 km in Mahottari, 69 km in Sarlahi, 68 km in Bara, 49 km in Banke , 35 km in Bardiya, 100 km in Kailali, and 68 km in Parsa will be completed under the first phase of the project.
The three-year project -- that executes the first phase of the construction of around 53 roads covering some 1,444 km in Tarai districts -- is expected to boost economic activities and mobility of goods and people in the districts bordering the southern neighbor.
As per the tentative estimation, the construction of per kilometer of road costs Rs 16 million.
Nepal and India had signed an agreement to execute the first phase project a few months ago. The two countries had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2005 to conduct survey design for the construction of the project in the southern part of the East-West Highway.
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