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Govt plans tender call to blacktop Mailung road
The Roads Department is mulling to call global tenders to blacktop the Mailung-Syabrubesi road, an 18-km section of the Rasuwagadhi Highway that leads to the Chinese border north of Kathmandu.The Roads Department is mulling to call global tenders to blacktop the Mailung-Syabrubesi road, an 18-km section of the Rasuwagadhi Highway that leads to the Chinese border north of Kathmandu.
The highway to China links Galchhi, Trishuli and Rasuwagadhi and is 82 km long. The department said it would initiate the public procurement process to appoint a contractor within three weeks.
The Nepal Army is doing the track opening of the Mailung-Syabrubesi road which is at the final stages. It will hand over the road to the department after the project is completed.
According to the department, the army has achieved a breakthrough and only minor tasks like widening the road at a few places remain to be done. The road is the final stretch of the Galchhi-Trishuli-Rasuwagadhi highway and is being developed with Chinese aid.
“The army has said it will hand over the road to us within a week or two,” said Subodh Devkota, the project chief of the Galchhi-Trishuli-Rasuwagadhi Highway Project.
“As a detailed design of the road is ready, we will immediately initiate the process to appoint a contractor.”
Meanwhile, work to upgrade the Syabrubesi-Rasuwagadhi section to a two-lane, all-weather highway will begin in August. The department is waiting for Chinese officials to submit a detailed project report (DPR) of the project. Work will begin after the department okays the report.
Nepal and China signed an agreement several years ago to upgrade the highway connecting the two countries. In December 2016, Nepal and China signed a Rs15.7 billion (RMB 1 billion) bilateral assistance agreement, and a portion of the funds will be used to repair and improve the Syabrubesi-Rasuwagadhi section of the highway.
Meanwhile, Nepal has started upgradation and construction work on the remaining 46-km section of the highway. The department has completed 20 percent of the work on the 46-km Galchhi-Mailung section.
The District Administration Office (DAO) has already initiated the process to acquire private land and clear forest areas along the road so that it can be widened.
The department is planning to acquire enough land to widen the road to 30 metres. “We are yet to calculate the area of the land that needs to be acquired,” said Devkota. “However, we will have to acquire the land in five packages.”
The DAO has published notices halting the transfer of land titles under the first two packages while it is yet to publish notices for the remaining three packages.