Committee formed to speed up Fast Track works

Purushottam Khatri / Kathmandu, Dec. 31: The Nepali Army has formed a coordination and monitoring committee to speed up the ongoing work of the Kathmandu-Terai Madhes Fast Track (Expressway) project, one of the national pride projects of the country.

The project is progressing under the management of the Nepali Army with the slogan ‘Today’s start, Tomorrow’s base: Kathmandu-Terai Madhes Expressway’.

The committee was formed under the chairmanship of the former Spokesperson for the Nepali Army and Brigadier General, Narayan Silwal. The committee is also given the task of coordinating and solving all the problems and challenges encountered in the progress of the project. Chairman Silwal said, “The committee is tasked with monitoring and coordinating for the completion of the project according to the mandate of the organisation.”

Completing it is our main responsibility. The committee has already started its work, said Silwal.

Nepali people have high hope and trust in the project, which aims to connect the country’s capital through the shortest route from the eastern and mid-Terai-Madhes, said Silwal.

The Expressway project, which started in the fiscal year 2018/19, is set to be completed by January, 2025. Starting from Khokana in Lalitpur and reaching Nijgadh in Bara through Makwanpur and Kathmandu, the Expressway is 72.5 km in length.

In Mahadevdanda, Dhedre and Lendanda, there will be 87 small and big bridges along the Expressway with 6.41-km double tunnel. The length of those bridges will be 10.59 km. Excluding bridges and tunnels, the road section will be 55.5 km. The Expressway covers 7.9 km in Lalitpur, four km in Kathmandu, 53 km in Makwanpur and 7.6 km in Bara.

The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs. 175 billion.

“The financial and physical progress of the project so far is about 21 per cent,” said newly appointed Spokesperson and Brigadier General Krishna Prasad Bhandari. BG Bhandari said that Rs. 37.96 billion had been spent for the project so far. Lately, the project construction work is being led by Brigadier General Kamal Bikram Shah.

The infrastructure is related to the idea of building another alternative international airport in Nijgadh, with the Tribhuvan International Airport unable to cope with the high volume of traffic, and considering the shortest road distance connecting Kathmandu and Bara, mid-Terai.

Spokesperson Bhandari said that the Expressway will be established as a state-of-the-art and game changer project in the field of road transport in Nepal.

After the construction of a short, wide and well-equipped expressway connecting Kathmandu to neighbouring India through Terai Madhes, the travel time from Kathmandu to Nijgadh will be reduced from five hours to one, saving fuel and time, said Bhandari.