Pokhara-Mugling Highway: Pokhara Metropolitan City starts removing illegal structures along Pokhara-Bijayapur section of the highway

Published On: July 10, 2023 05:00 PM NPT By: SANDESH SHRESTHA

POKHARA, July 10: Pokhara Metropolitan City has started to remove the structures built by encroaching upon the land on the roadsides from Pokhara to Bijayapur along the Prithvi Highway.

The Prithvi Highway is being widened to four lanes with the help of Asian Development Bank (ADB). Currently, 80 km of road widening work is being done from Pokhara to Abu Khaireni in Tanahun.

Officials at the Department of Roads (DoR) have said that DoR is ready to start widening the Jamune-Pokhara section on the west side of the highway. The Department said that the ADB team will visit Pokhara on July 12 to assess the situation of road construction.

As the ADB team is set to arrive in Pokhara for inspection, the Pokhara metropolis started to remove the illegal structures built from Prithvi Chowk in Pokhara to Bijayapur. On the first day of demolition, the Mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City, Dhanraj Acharya himself arrived and gave instructions to demolish the illegal structures.

This is not the first time that illegal structures have been removed from this stretch of road. Dozers have been used to remove illegal structures built in the area even in the past. About five years ago, dozers were used in the same way in that area. But even after the removal of the illegal structure, the encroachment started again after the road was not widened. Currently, the same encroached land is being cleared by the metropolis.

Mayor Acharya said that illegal structures built from Prithvi Chowk to Bijayapur river will be removed in the first phase. According to him, all the illegal structures on the right and left sides of the highway within 23 meters of the highway will be removed. After that, illegal structures will be removed from Bijayapur via Lekhnath to the border of Tanahun in the second phase.

"We issued a notice a month ago instructing them to voluntarily remove the illegal structure. But as our request was disregarded, we used dozers to remove those structures," he added.

Under the Pokhara-Muglin road project, only 170 houses in Pokhara metropolis have to be demolished. Compensation for the demolition of 112 houses and physical structures has already been distributed, according to the metropolis.