The government has requested the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a US aid agency, to finance the upgradation work of  the East-Way Highway.

The government had announced its plan to widen the highway to four lanes from two lanes through the budget statement for the current fiscal year.

The 1,024-km highway extends along the length of Nepal through the Tarai region and links the eastern and western parts of the country. It is also one of the busiest highways in the country.

Bishnu Om Bade, joint secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, confirmed that the government had asked the two donor agencies for funding.

The government has asked the ADB to finance the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal stretch of the highway, according to Bade. MCC has been requested to provide funding for the Pathalaiya-Kakarbhitta section. Bade said that the World Bank too had shown interest in funding the project. Meanwhile, Office of Millennium Challenge Nepal (OMCN) said that discussions on funding the project had been going on with the government for the last three months. “Based on the discussions so far, this can be one of the road projects we can fund,” said Krishna Gyawali, national coordinator of OMCN. The organization plans to

fund four projects, two in the road sector and two in the energy sector.

According to Gyawali, who is also a former government secretary, MCC headquarters has indicated that it could provide a maximum of $700 million to Nepal under the compact programme for a period of five years.

Nepal was selected under the programme in December 2014 after it passed the scorecard-based criteria for the last four years consistently, and continues to demonstrate clear progress in institutionalising democratic progress, according to the MCC.

Likewise, the ADB confirmed that it had received a request for funding from the government. “We are considering the government’s proposal,” said ADB Country Director Kenichi Yokoyama. “The portion of the works could cost between $200 million and $300 million as per the government’s estimate,” he said.