Restoration of dug road to begin this week

Kathmandu, Feb. 17: The restoration of the road sections that have been dug to lay water pipelines in Kathmandu and Lalitpur is to begin in a couple of days.

“The reinstatement of the roads will be expedited so as to finish it by mid-May 2017,” said director of the Project Implementation Directorate (PID) at the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) Tiresh Prasad Khatri at a press conference on Friday.

He said that of the 200 km section of the main road, 150 km had been dug to lay the pipes.

"The Department of Roads will rehabilitate the roads that fall under its jurisdiction, the rest will be built by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City,” said Khatri.

“A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed with the concerned parties on this," said Khatri.

The KUKL and the financing partner,the Asian Development Bank (ADB),had called the press conference amidst growing criticism from the public that the road digging had led to extreme air pollution and dust in the city.

Executive director of Sharma and Company, one of the contractors involved in laying the pipeline for the Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP), Ramesh Sharma said that the company had tried not to dig the roads, but then there was no alternative.

"We tried to lay the pipelines under the footpath, but that part of the road was cluttered with water pipes, fiber optics and other wires. So, we were left with no option but to dig the road," he said.

However, he said that during the construction of large infrastructure projects like the MWSP, the public must bear with some of the nuisances like dust and traffic disturbances.

Khatri said that the PID of KUKL was aware about the environmental hazardsthe people were having to encounterin the valley and said several measures had been taken to minimise them.

"We are aware that it is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act, 1997, to cause significant adverse impacts on the environment. And the PID-KUKL has adopted the best practices to prevent dust," he said.

According to him, the KUKL had taken the inconvenience and hardships being experienced by the residents of the valley due to pipe laying works and other sources of dustvery seriously, and was committed to taking strict measures to monitor the pollution.

Khatri said that more than 1200 workers were working at 40 different sites with a target to accomplish all the pipe laying works before the completion of the Melamchi tunnel work.

ADB country director Kenichi Yokoyama expressed concern about the growing air pollution due to the pipe laying works and urged the government to adopt the necessary measures.

"But it shouldn't be forgotten that the unprecedented pace of development like the MWSP might create some disturbances,yet the developers must comply with international standards to minimise the adverse impact on the people," he said.

Minister of State for Minister of Water Supply and Sanitation Dipak Khadka said that the government was serious to address the health hazards the people were having to face due to the dust and other pollutants.