Nagdhunga Tunnel Project likely to take more months for completion

Kathmandu / Dec 18: The Nagdhunga Tunnel Construction Project remaining the top priority of the government is likely to miss the deadline.

According to the project, the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges to go for the land acquisition had their implications on its progress and six months seem to be insufficient to meet the target.

Project deputy director Madhav Prasad Adhikari said the Project is likely to be delayed by some months.

The project’s deadline is ending on coming mid-August. Works were irregular in the past two previous years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The study is going on to assess the additional time that the project requires to get completed. But the tentative calculation, the project needs more than six months for completion. As the deputy director said, the work progress is satisfactory.

The progress is above 70 per cent.

So far, 1,711 meters of tunnel construction, out of 2,688 meter-long, has been completed. The construction of 832 metres of the tunnel has been completed from the eastern side and 878 metres from the western side.

Altogether 2,557 metres of the evacuation tunnel should be constructed and so far construction of 1,948 metres has been completed. Similarly, the construction of 126 metres of ‘working audit’ has been over.

A cross passage of fi9ve and half kilometres should have been constructed, but so far three kilometres 86 metres of it have been constructed, according to the Project.

Twelve additional structures should be constructed along with the tunnel under the Project. Eleven structures have been constructed so far. Three under-pass, one over-pass, three bridges and four box culverts have been constructed, the Project stated. RSS