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Kanti Highway finally getting blacktopped
Nearly six decades after the highway connecting Kathmandu with Hetauda and Birjung was constructed, it is finally getting blacktopped. The highway called Kanti Highway, saw the process of blacktopping the road begin on Saturday after completing an upgradation task.Pratap Bista
Nearly six decades after the highway connecting Kathmandu with Hetauda and Birjung was constructed, it is finally getting blacktopped.
The highway called Kanti Highway, saw the process of blacktopping the road begin on Saturday after completing an upgradation task.
Kanti Highway was inaugurated in 1959.
A section of road from Chuchehola in Makwanpur district to Jitpur Bhanqyang will be blacktopped in the first phase.
15 kilometres of road will be blacktopped in the first phase. Chuchehola- Jitpur Bhanqyang road has already been widened and provision for drainage has also been fixed.
The contract of blacktopping the road was awarded to Kathmandu-based Motidan Construction at a cost of Rs280 million.
According to Bikash Gautam of Motidan Construction, the process of blacktopping the road has begun as all other work in the road section has been completed.
“We aim to blacktop nine kilometres within current fiscal year,” Gautam said. “Remaining six kilometres will begin after Dashain festival comes to an end in October.” Two kilometres road in Tikabhairav, Lalitpur have already been blacktopped.
The budget for the current fiscal year has allocated Rs600 million for the purpose of blacktopping the highway.
Apart from Motidan, two other contractors have been awarded the contract of extending the Kanti Highway.
“All the companies are working within a tight deadline,” Ramesh Pandey, said an engineer overseeing the road project , adding that the road is currently only being used by light vehicles. “The 88-kilometre road will be completely blacktopped within fiscal year 2017-18.”
Roads with a width of 15 metres will have half of its width blacktopped to allow vehicles to continue using the road.
Once completed, vehicles can drive at an average speed of 30 kilometres per hour ensuring that people get to commute from Satdobato, Lalitpur to Hetauda in just three hours.
Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, the then King of Nepal himself drove to Hetauda from Kathmandu after the opening of the highway in 1959.