Project of national pride, 10 km road has been paved in Baglung section of Kaligandaki Corridor.
The Gulmi and Baglung border is being worked on in two sections, the first from Palungkhola to Balewa and the second from Balewa to Maldhunga. 24 km Kalika Construction in the first section from Palungkhola to Balewa and 10 km Khadka/Krishna/BN JB from Balewa to Maldhunga. Arun Khatri, information officer of the Kaligandaki Corridor Project Office informed that only the first section has been blacklisted so far.
In the second section, road widening, drain construction and 'rock cutting' work are being done, he says. Khatri said that 24 kilometers of roads, 14 kilometers in the first section and 10 kilometers in the second section, are yet to be paved. According to him, 50 percent of the work from Palungkhola to Balewa and 70 percent from Balewa to Maldhunga have been completed.
'The cold weather has started to end, now preparations have been made in many places for black paper, the remaining places will be black papered in a short time,' Information Officer Khatri said, 'Now if we look at the progress of Baglung section, 77/78 percent of the work has been completed, the second section has not started for black paper, but other work has been done in full swing.'
The corridor project, which is a tri-national road, was started 14 years ago. The project, which started from the financial year 2067/68, has connected Jaimini Municipality and Baglung Municipality of the district. It is 19.5 km in Jaimini and 14.5 km in Baglung municipality.
Corridor Baglung, which is 495 km from Gaindakote in Nawalpur to Korala crossing, is 240 km long. It has shortened the journey from the districts including Mustang, Myagdi, Baglung, Parbat to Butwal, Bhairahawa and India.
Sunil Thapa, a local, said that the journey from Baglung to Butwal, Bhairahawa and other places was shortened after the corridor started to be blackened. According to him, Indian pilgrims to Muktinath have started to travel more and more even though the vehicles ply on Kachi.
He said, 'The corridor directly connected Baglung with the Terai, before going to Butwal, you had to take a detour through Pokhara, now you can go directly from here to Butwal, earlier it took about nine hours to reach Butwal, now it takes less than five hours, it has given great convenience to the people of Baglung, if all the roads are paved, the journey will be easier and shorter.'
