Butwal-Gorusinge road: One year left on deadline, only 29% progress

With only one year left before the deadline for widening the Butwal–Gorusinge section of the East-West Highway, physical progress has not even reached one-third.

According to the project, work to widen about 50 kilometers of road began on 2081 Kartik 4 and must be completed by 2084 Kartik 4.

Project engineer Ashok Paudel said physical progress on the first of two roughly 25-kilometer lots stands at about 29.5 percent, and on the second at about 29 percent.

According to project officials, physical progress should have reached about 40 to 45 percent by now.

Shortage of soil, ballast and river-based construction materials, as well as delays in shifting electricity poles, have been the main obstacles.

Against a requirement of about 2 million cubic meters of soil for the roughly 25-kilometer section, only about 123,000 cubic meters have been made available.

Roshan Giri, an engineer with the construction company, said the shortage of soil has affected preparations to blacktop about 10 kilometers of road. Drains on both sides of the road have been built along only about 9 kilometers so far.

The contract has been awarded to a joint venture of the Chinese company Sansi Construction Engineering Group Corporation and Chitwan's Ashish Nirman Sewa, with a contract value of about Rs 13.55 billion.

For the current fiscal year, about Rs 4.50 billion has been allocated to the project.