Even though the road expansion project has been underway for almost seven years, the work is still not complete. Although many areas have been paved, problems ranging from traffic jams to mud and dust persist in the Daunna area.
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It has been almost seven years since the Narayangadh-Butwal road was expanded, but the work is still not completed. Due to the lack of timely construction of the road, passengers are forced to face mud and dust all the time, be it in winter, floods or rainy season. Currently, this problem is more in the Daunne section of the road.
Although many places have been blacktopped, traffic jams, mud, and dust problems persist in the Daunne section. The project has stated that 82.466 km of four-lane roads and 19.34 km of two-lane roads have been blacktopped so far out of the 113 km of roads that have been expanded. 58 of the 64 bridges on the road section and 456 of the 468 culverts have been constructed.
Although there were problems in the initial days, there will be no problems on this road in the coming monsoon as much work has been done now, says Chudaraj Dhakal, project chief of the Project Directorate (ADB). 'Initially, there were many problems on this road, passengers and drivers had to suffer a lot,' he said, 'Now there is a problem only in Daunne.' Apart from Daunne, work on the Arun Khola and Chormara bridges is still pending. He said that the work on that bridge has also reached the completion stage. ‘Out of 14 km in Daunne, 3 km has been blacktopped, 3 km has been sloped from both sides,’ he said, ‘The remaining 8 km have been asked to be sloped.’ According to him, even though the construction contractor asked for slope on the remaining four km of the road, the project has asked for blacktop.
‘Initially, slopes were made in places in Daunne,’ he said, ‘At that time, slopes were made after blacktopping was not durable.’ He said that although all roads were to be blacktopped during its design, the international consultant decided to make slopes because there was a risk of problems later if blacktopping was done in the Daunne section. ‘There are many turns in Daunne, it is geographically complex and there is also a problem of water leaking from places,’ he said, ‘That is why it was decided that slopes were the best option, and only some sections have been sloped accordingly.’ He said that slopes were not allowed in all sections due to cost and lack of budget. The project claims that the delay in construction has been due to the contractor so far.
The project office has been backing down, warning that it will terminate the contract when the contractor fails to complete the work on time. In the first week of Asoj 2079, the project had issued a one-month notice and warned that it would terminate the contract when the contractor did not make progress in the work. The project backed down from terminating the contract after the contractor promised to complete the work soon. For the second time, the project issued an NTC (Notice to Correct) notice through the consultant, warning that the contract would be terminated if the work was not completed within the specified time.
According to the NTC, it was stated that 70 percent of the work on one side should be completed by December 2024 and that at least one side should be completely completed by March 2025 and the means of transport should be plying. According to this, the progress should have been achieved by Falgun-Chait 2081. So far, the construction progress is only 74 percent. ‘It takes time to break the contract and make a new one, the cost will increase again,’ he said, ‘Accordingly, we have been pressuring the construction contractor to complete the work no matter what, the work is being done accordingly now, now the work will be completed, the passengers, drivers and locals will not have to suffer.’ The contract was taken by China State Construction Engineering Corporation. After the company delayed the work, the project office had pressured its central office in the initial days, demanding that the work be completed quickly. The Road Department has now informed that the construction contractor has moved forward with the work accordingly.
After the road is built, the construction contractor will do the maintenance work for five years. ‘After setting such rules, the construction contractor will do quality work,’ he said. The contract agreement was signed on 22nd Chaitra 2079 to complete the work by 22nd Shrawan 2079. It has been divided into two parts and the contract has been awarded. After the work was not completed on the specified time, the deadline was extended for the second time until 22nd Shrawan 2081.
After the work was not completed during this period, the deadline was extended for the third time in last Shrawan to 8 Shrawan 082. After the work was not completed during this period, the deadline was extended for the fourth time to 24 Asad 083. The project office claims that the work will be completed within this time. The contract was signed with the loan assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The contract amount of which is 16 billion 99 crore 52 lakh 96 thousand rupees in two parts.
