KAWASOTI, March 16: Blacktopping has started in the Kawasoti area along the eastern section of the East-West Narayanghat-Butwal road four years after its foundation stone was laid.

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

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

Narayanghat-Butwal Road Project manager Rakesh Jha said 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 said.

The progress of the road widening project was only 26 percent by mid-March, the project sources said. 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 the 115-km road from Gaindakot-based Narayani River Bridge to Butwal. As per the design, there would be six lanes in settlement areas, four lanes in forest areas and three lanes in Daunne area.

(RSS)

 
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