The upgrade of the Maldhunga-Beni road connecting Myagdi and Mustang to the national highway has made travel easier and travel time shorter.

The work of blacktopping the Maldhunga-Beni road with oxfalt technology by making it 11 meters wide with two lanes through the national pride Kaligandaki Corridor (Beni-Jomsom-Korla) road project connecting China and India has reached the final stage. 

The Road Planning Office has stated that blacktopping and slope work has been completed in all but about two kilometers of the approximately 13-kilometer road. Transport entrepreneur Resh Bahadur Bishwakarma said that the travel time on the Maldhunga-Beni road, which was previously one hour, has been reduced to 20 to 25 minutes after the upgrade. 

‘For the last five years, we have been traveling on the winding alternative road connecting Maldhunga via Beni, Ratnechaur, Baglung, to travel between Pokhara and Beni,’ he said, ‘In addition to eliminating the problem of having to travel on the winding road, the travel time has also been reduced.’ 

Baburam Karki, a resident of Milanchowk, Jaljala Rural Municipality-7, said that after the road was blacktopped, the situation of having to travel in dust and mud has come to an end. ‘We expect the road upgrading work to be completed soon in the remaining areas,’ he said, ‘After the road upgrading is completed, the fares of public transport and transportation will also be adjusted.’ 

Local residents of Jaljala Rural Municipality of Myagdi, Mustang and Parbat, as well as tourists and pilgrims, travel on this road. The Maldhunga-Beni road, which was opened in 2052 BS under the ‘Food for Work’ program, was blacktopped on one side in 2068 BS. 

This narrow road had recently become dilapidated due to the increase in the pressure of vehicles after the Mustang and Korala checkpoints were connected to the road network. Apex-Khadka-Krishna JV had signed a contract agreement in Chaitra 2077 BS for the construction of a two-lane road connecting Kushma Municipality-1 Maldhunga to Jaljala Rural Municipality-8, 7, 4 and 3 to Myagdi headquarters Beni. 

The target was to complete the road construction in 2079 BS. The main contractor had come to the work area a year ago to complete the plan that had been abandoned by the assistant contractor Omkareshwar, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, floods and landslides, and the shortage of river-borne construction materials. 

Earlier, three kilometers, three hundred meters of blacktop and two kilometers, two hundred meters of slope were completed last year in the Maldhunga-Fars section. The blacktop of six kilometers, five hundred meters of the Lasti-Beni section began in the first week of this Mangsir. 

Blacktop has been completed in the Lasti, Kerabari and Lamakhet sections. In coordination with the local administration, the road was closed from 10 am to 5 pm from Mangsir 1 to 20 to facilitate the blacktop work. Jeevan Chaudhary, an engineer at the construction company, said that the construction of the structure for blacktop of about one kilometer and two hundred meters within Lasti-Farseh and Milanchowk Bazaar has reached the final stage.