Next Chaitra, it will be seven years since the Narayangadh-Butwal road expansion work began. But the work is not yet complete. The overall progress is 80 percent. Even though work has been completed elsewhere, the 14-km section of Daunne, which continues to face the most problems, has not yet been resolved. 

After more problems started occurring during the rainy season, 11 km of this section is being sloped using cement. Since the initial design could not assess the risk of the area, the project has now reconsidered the design and is building a sloped road at the request of the consultant and construction contractor. 

Although the initial design mentioned blacktop, during the construction, it was found that the blacktop would not be durable due to the soil in the area, the slope work was taken forward, said Chudaraj Dhakal, Project Chief of the Project Directorate (ADB). 'Since there are many problems during the construction of the Daunne section, it was said that a sloped road was needed from all sides for durability. The soil in that area was found to be different from the previous estimate,' he said, 'There was more waterlogging and swampy soil, and since there were more freight vehicles in that area, there was a higher risk of the blacktop road collapsing and deteriorating when the brakes were applied.' 

Dhakal said that it was necessary to slope the road as per the discussions with experts and the consultant's suggestion. 'Only in the Daunne section, a three-lane road is being built due to geographical conditions. Apart from this, four lanes have been built in 99 km in rural and forest areas and up to eight lanes with service lanes on both sides in the market area,' he said, 'There are weak hills in Daunne, and problems have arisen many times during the rainy season. Passengers had to suffer a lot during the festival season. The consultant pointed out that blacktopping the road would not be durable, so the slope work was taken forward.' 

Out of the 14 km, 3 km of blacktop and the remaining 11 will be sloped. 3 km has been blacktopped. Of this, 6.5 km of the road has been sloped. 4.5 km of road is being constructed by sloping. ‘Road sloping work is being done at a rate of 50 meters per day, and the slope work has been added later, which has cost about 510 million more than the estimated cost,’ he said. ‘If we add up the cost of maintenance over 30 years, the blacktop road will have to be rebuilt three times during this period and the maintenance will have to be done every one to two years, so if we add up all the costs, it will be cheaper to build a sloping road.’ 

Tar and bitumen should be brought from abroad to blacktop the road. ‘Since we are self-sufficient in cement, we have our own, we have our own stone, gravel, sand,’ he said. ‘Indigenous products have also been consumed, and the road will also be maintained.’ 

He claims that although the overall project deadline is until Asad, the paving work will be completed by Jestha. ‘All the work elsewhere has been completed and is being painted, the work on the service lane is more than half complete,’ he said, ‘Two culverts are under construction in Daunne, but the pace of work is high, so there will be no delay now.’

As per the contract agreement signed in Chaitra 2075, the work on this road section was to be completed by Shrawan 2079. However, citing Covid-19 and shortage of construction materials, the deadline was extended for the first time to 11 Shrawan 2080. But the work was not completed within that time either. The deadline was extended for the second time to 8 Shrawan 2081. But the work was not completed. Even though the deadline was extended for the third time to Shrawan 2082, the work was not completed, and the deadline has been extended for the fourth time to Ashar 2083. The total distance of the road is 113 km. The contract amount for its two sections is 16.99 billion 52 lakh 96 thousand rupees.