Chitwan, March 22
Contractors working on the Narayangadh-Muglin Highway upgrade project, which was supposed to be completed last year, have been given three more months to wrap up the construction work.
Work on widening the highway, one of the key components of Nepal’s highway network, began in 2015. The project was expected to be completed in 2017. However, following the earthquake and the Indian blockade, the deadline for the work was extended for 10 months. Now, the companies are saying that frequent landslides, election-related traffic and movement of vehicles during the festivals are impacting their work and it cannot be completed on time.
Supreme-Rautaha JV was awarded the contract for working the 12.1 kilometre stretch from Simlatar to Muglin, Hill-Lama JV for a 10.7-kmsection and BLA-Shrestha JV for a 10.4 km section. According to the project the contractors have been given deadlines of May 10, May 20 and May 30 respectively. Earlier, the project had hinted that the deadline would be extended by 70-80 days.
The project says that only 82 per cent of the civil works has been completed so far. Of the 33.2 km, only 24.5 km has been tarmacked so far.
