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.
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