An implementation agreement will soon be signed between government officials from the two countries.
The Chinese team has finalized the design for the long-discussed second section of the Ring Road expansion. For that, first an implementation agreement will be signed between the government officials of the two countries. For which, the Road Department has sent the documents sent online by the Chinese team to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport. Now the ministry will see whether all the processes have been completed.
If the necessary things are not completed in the agreement documents, they will be asked to be added again through the Road Department, said Arjun Prasad Aryal, Deputy Director General of the Department. “We have already provided the necessary documents for the implementation agreement by sending them to the Ministry of Finance and Foreign Affairs,” he said. “If the documents are not complete or if something needs to be added, the Ministry will inform the Department, and we will complete and send them accordingly.” If the process is complete, the Ministry will send it to the Ministry of Finance. After that, after the Ministry of Finance sends it to the Foreign Affairs, the process of signing the agreement between the officials of the two countries will move forward. The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport has stated that this work will be completed within a month at the most. Sushil Babu Dhakal, Head of the Development Assistance Coordination and Quality Branch of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, said that the document sent by China has come through the Road Department and is preparing to send it to the Ministry of Finance. ‘After the agreement, its implementation will be done by the Road Department, the department is in touch with the Chinese team,’ he said, ‘This is an agreement on how to support the team after it arrives, what to support, what they will do.’ He said that the agreement will be reached within a month at the most.’
‘There will be no more delays now, everything has been finalized on what to include in the design,’ he said, ‘There will be no delay in the expansion work now.’ Deputy Director General of the Road Department, Aryal, said that after the agreement is signed, China will send the design to the Road Department for approval. ‘Once the design is approved, the Chinese government will call for a contract there,’ he said, ‘then the Chinese construction company will be selected and the work will start.’
During the Genji movement on Bhadra 23, the Chinese team came to advance the implementation agreement process, but the team returned due to the immediate situation. Due to the situation at that time, the process could not proceed immediately. Deputy Director General Aryal said that there is no problem now.
A Chinese technical team had come to survey the second section of the ring road on April 6. The survey work for the design took two and a half months. Although the survey work was done for a distance of 8.2 kilometers, the department has stated that the distance will not reach the Vasundhara culvert. ‘Initially, the work was done to survey from Kalanki to the Vasundhara culvert,’ said Krishnanath Ojha, the then head of the Kathmandu Ring Road Expansion Planning Office. ‘According to the said distance, the expansion work will be done only up to near Basundhara Chowk.’
According to the design, a concrete bridge will be built at Dhungedhara. Three sky bridges will be made disabled-friendly. A sky bridge will be built between Sitapaila, Balaju and Machhapokhari and between Samakhusi and Basundhara police station. Similarly, the department has stated that the street lights from Kalanki to Basundhara Chowk have been designed to be built by China during the road expansion.
Chinese government companies CCCC First Highway Consultants and Xi'an Fangzhou Engineering Consulting conducted the survey work. Currently, there are four lanes from Kalanki to Sitapaila and two lanes from Sitapaila to the ring road. Now, with the expansion, there will be eight lanes, excluding the service lane.
A letter of cooperation was signed between representatives of the governments of Nepal and China on Bhadra 6. The work on the first section of Koteshwor-Kalanki started in 2069 and was completed in 2075. A G2G agreement was signed with China in 2018 to expand from Kalanki to Basundhara. Accordingly, the second phase is now being expanded with a grant from the Chinese government.
