The work of expanding the Narayangadh Butwal section under the East-West Highway, which has been promoted as a project of national pride, has gained momentum.

Engineer Shiv Khanal, Information Officer of Narayanghat Butwal Road Plan, Eastern Section, informed that work is currently underway to lay black sheets at various 18 locations in the Eastern Section. "This February, work is being done to deliver one-way tarpaulin from Gandakot to Dumkeeba," he said. He said that out of the 65 kilometers of roads in the eastern section, the bridge and culverts are about three kilometers.

He says that when the two-lane roads are blacked out, about 64 km of the road is blacked out. Information officer Engineer Khanal said that while about 22 km of the road has been blacked, the blacking of the one-lane road from Narayanghat to Daunne will be completed.

'The plan is to build a one-way tarp till Daunne this month,' he said.

He said that while constructing the culvert on the narrow road of Daunne, the vehicles have to go one-way and it will take some time to blacken up to Daunne. He said that 550 workers are working hard at 18 locations including graders, loaders and excavators for road expansion. He said that the physical progress of the road is 53.3 percent so far, and he said that the progress has been made by one tenth and 43 percent within one month. 

'In January, five kilometers of blacktop were added, another 12 km  "Black paper has been prepared," he said, "near Narayani bridge in Gandakot, work is being done for black paper in Danda, Siji, Arunkhola market area." Engineer Khanal, information officer, said that work is also being done to lay black sheets in the forest area of ​​Dumkibas about eight kilometers.

The contract for the construction of this section was awarded to the Chinese construction company 'China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited' through global bidding. On January 22, 2075, a contract was signed between the government and the construction company to complete the work by July 22, 2079.

114 km  The road has been divided into two sections, Gandakot-Dawne (65 km) and Downe-Butwal (49 km), and China State Construction was entrusted with the construction of both sections in the bids invited. The formal work of road expansion started after the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli laid the foundation stone of both sections from Butwal on Chait 8th of 2075. 

The deadline was extended for the first time until July 8, 2080, and for the second time until July 8, 2081, after not even a quarter of the work was done within the scheduled time. The construction company extended the contract three times citing various problems including covid, lack of construction materials. The government has extended the deadline for the third time to complete the construction by the 8th of July. 

The government returned to work from December 2024 after the government sent a letter to take action against the construction company that had extended the deadline without working for four months. The two-lane road will be expanded to four lanes and 'greenery' will be placed between two lanes.