House panel shows concern over expressway tunnels

Kathmandu, Mar. 16: The Development and Technology Committee of the Parliament has expressed concerns over the delayed progress on construction of tunnels in the Kathmandu-Terai Expressway and recommended making a decision on the proposed tunnel section at the earliest.

It suggested a roadmap for the timely completion of the Rs. 132 billion national pride project. 

A panel led by the committee chair, Kalyani Kumari Khadka, had made a field visit to the much-hyped road project on 21 December last year. The study team submitted the report to the committee on Friday. Its final decision is yet to come.

The new Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the project prepared by Soosung Engineering and Consulting, a Korean firm, has increased the number of tunnels from one to three. Earlier, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had conducted a feasibility study in 2008 and suggested making a 1.35 km long tube tunnel.

The ADB feasibility study mapped the tunnel at Mahadevtar section while the new DPR has added two more tunnels, 1.4 km each, at Jitpur and Lendanda section.

Construction of three tunnels will reduce the length of the expressway from 76.2 km to 73.5 km.

The report said that the project had thrown the soil and rocks produced during the road construction at the adjacent areas and river banks, which had created environmental problems. It said that there should be a regular monitoring of the construction work in order to check whether the environmental aspects were given due attention as mentioned in the DPR.

Similarly, there was no policy base to make an immediate decision about shifting settlements that are in the right of way of the expressway and for additional land acquisition which might affect the construction work, read the report.

The study team also suggested resolving the land acquisition issues at the Khokana section, making the tendering process transparent, making the construction monitoring more effective and forming a committee for grievance hearing and implementation.

It also recommended giving jobs to the local people along the road project as per their capacity and skills.

It expressed satisfaction over the work progress so far and concluded that the Nepal Army, developer of the project, should expedite the work as it has only 2 and a half year to complete it.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 17 March 2019.