After completing additional work related to road safety, the vehicle is ready to be put into operation from the first week of June
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The Gwarko overpass, which was started in February 2078 to be completed within two years, is being completed by the end of this May, taking 15 months longer than that. After the construction of the overpass, the road safety department is ready to start the operation of vehicles from the first week of June.
This four-lane overpass is 320 meters long from Gwarko Chowk towards Koteshwar and 185 meters long towards Satdobato, where at present black-paving is being done. On Saturday, the first level of black paper has started towards Koteshwar. There will be four layers of blackboard in this section.
Vishal Karki, project manager of Ashish-Parallel-Religer JV, involved in the construction, says that the construction of the base will start within a week.
According to Deep Barahi, director of the quality, research and development center under the road department, all construction works will be completed within this month. "There is not much work left now," he said, "We will operate vehicles from the overpass as soon as it is finished." So far, the construction progress is 85 percent. Ashish-Parallel-Religer JV has taken its contract for Rs 17 crore 6 lakh 88 thousand. According to the
contract, the construction of the overpass was to be completed by February 12, 2080. After it was not completed, the deadline was extended for the second time until June 2081, but still the work was not completed. After the work was not completed again, the deadline was until December 9, but the pace of work did not increase. Since the company that took the contract failed to work, the work has been carried out with fines since last December 10.
The Center said that the fine was imposed at the rate of 0.05 percent per day.
The ramp of the overpass has been built up to 10.2 meters high. 13 months into the contract, work was halted due to design issues. It has been contracted under the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) model. Therefore, the work from design to construction has to be done by the contracting company. After seeing technical problems during construction, the businessmen stopped the main work and 'revised the design'.
Photos: Deepak KC/Kantipur
Since the construction started, there is not a day without traffic jam in the Koteshwar-Gwarko-Satdobato-Kalanki section. The driver-passenger has no choice but to reach the destination only after passing the traffic jam for a long time. The problem of traffic jams is still the same.
Deputy Director General and Spokesperson of the Road Department, Arjun Prasad Aryal said that although the construction work will be completed by June, vehicles will be able to operate on the overpass only from the first week of June. He said, "After the black paper work, road safety work has to be done. Railings have to be installed. After all this work, the construction company will hand it over to the department." According to Aryal, the maintenance work should also be done by the builders for five years after the construction is completed. "Vehicles going from Gwarko to Luvhu cross under the overpass," he said, "as vehicles going to Koteshwar and Kalanki use the overpass, there will be no traffic jams in this section."
