The time has been extended till October 25, although the road construction has been completed in the eastern section, some road safety work remains, the plan is to complete the construction of the western section by December.
What you should know
The extension of the Muglin-Pokhara road section of Prithvi Highway has been completed. In the eastern section (Ambukhaireni-Jamune), the deadline has been extended for the fourth time due to the fact that some road safety work is still remaining.
Under the Prithvi Highway, which was planned in 2026, the Muglin-Pokhara road section is being expanded to four lanes with the loan support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). As the road expansion work has been progressed by dividing this section into two parts, the work of blackening the 41 km four-lane road of the eastern section (Ambukhaireni-Jamune) has been completed.
On the 39 km road of the western section (Jamune-Pokhara), the black sheeting work has been accelerated. Bishnu Prasad Pandey, Engineer of Muglin-Pokhara Road Plan (Eastern Section) said that the deadline has been extended till October 25 by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport. The third extension of this section expired on June 29.
"All the blacking work has been completed, 6 lanes in Damauli Bazar section and four lanes in other places have been blacked," he said, "In most places, road painting has also been completed. Now the security work, the internal road connected with the highway is left. Our goal is to complete these works in the time that has been added.' He says that the black paper work has been completed in the last 456 days and three years after the
agreement. In the eastern section, an agreement was signed on January 17, 2077, and the work started on May 2, 2078. On the 39 km road of Paschimkhand (Jamune-Pokhara) the black sheet work has also been progressed at a fast pace. Anant Baral, information officer of the western section of the Muglin-Pokhara scheme, said that the journey has become easier as most of the roads in this section have been paved. He said that the 26.5 km section is two-way and the 10.3 km section is one-way (two lanes). Out of the 39 km of the western section, 36.8 km of the road has been paved. Except for the section of the bridge, only 1300 meters of blackboard is left.
Baral said that only the section of Marivir section, section of Vijaypur Bridge, near Pokhara University of Lekhnath, section of Dandakonak Chowki is left to be paved. The work of the western section must be completed by next December. Our plan is to complete the main road work by that time," he said. Since most of the western section is in urban area, 19 km road section out of 39 km will be made into a 6-lane road. Work is being done to complete four lanes in all these sections by May. Baral also said that since the deadline for
western section is December 2025, some black paper work will be completed by that time. China Communication Construction Company was awarded the contract for the expansion of the eastern section of the highway. The western section expansion work has also been undertaken by the Chinese company Anhui Kaiyuan Road and Bridge. The highway is being expanded with an investment of 13.61 billion rupees. According to the
plan, 6.21 billion rupees will be spent for Ambukhaireni-Jamune in the eastern section and 7.44 billion rupees for the west section from Jamune to Pokhara. This amount is only for road widening. Apart from that, 1.2 billion rupees will be required to build a bridge over Madinadi at Damauli in Tanahun and another 1 billion rupees to build a bridge over Setindi at Pokhara. In all, more than 15 billion rupees will be spent on highway expansion. The physical progress of the bridge over the Madi river under construction in Tanahun section is 71 percent and the financial progress is 68 percent. According to the plan, the physical progress of the under-construction bridge over Seti river in Kaski section is about 48 percent.
Anbukhaireni-Jamune road section under Prithviraj highway. Photo: Remembrance/Kantipur
