The government’s plan to open the highway connecting Kathmandu with Hetauda is in limbo due to unavailability of the explosives required to widen it at some places.

It has been more than six decades since the road was opened.

The government’s plan to start movement of passenger vehicles on Kanti Highway from January will not materialise, according to the project office of Kanti Highway.

“Although it will be impossible to run passenger buses on the highway from January, the light vehicles can operate on the road,” said Devendra Shah, project chief of Kanti Highway. “As we are yet to receive explosives necessary to blast away hills at some places to widen the road, we are not sure when the construction will be completed.” 

The project has to widen around 4km-long section of road at various locations in Makwanpur and Lalitpur districts through which the highway passes. “We have blasted away hills at Simaltal of Makwanpur and Kalche and Jhakridanda of Lalitpur to widen the road so far,” said Shah. “But we don’t have enough explosives to blast the hills made of hard rock at those locations.”

Nepal Army, a year and half ago had agreed to supply 5 tonnes of explosives for the construction but the army has not delivered the explosives. “We were unable to supply explosive as we have not received our supply from India,” said an official from the Nepal Army. “It has been two years since we have opened letter of credit for the import of explosives but India has yet to supply it.”

The construction of the highway, according to Shah, will be pushed back by six months if the project fails to procure explosives immediately. The widening of road at other sections and fixing the drainage is going on at war footing, according to the project office.

The project office is undertaking the construction of the highway under 13 different packages. Apart from cutting the hills and widening road at a few sections, the project has to black top the highway as well.  

The project has already started black topping the highway. More than 8km-long section of highway that lies in Hetauda district have been black topped. Similarly, the project has black topped 1.5km-long section in Lalitpur district.

Once the 90km-long highway is completed, it will significantly reduce the travel distance from Kathmandu to Hetauda.

 Currently, one has to travel 226km to reach Hetauda via Kathamndu-Mugling-Narayanghat-Hetauda road and 136 km via Kathmandu-Palung-Hetauda road.

The government has allotted Rs 600 million for the construction of the highway in this fiscal year.

The track of the highway was opened in 1959 and Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, the then King of Nepal himself drove to Hetauda from Kathmandu after the track was opened.