China’s Continuous Delay and Rain Now Impede Narayangadh-Butwal Expansion

The expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal road section, whose contractor is China State Engineering Corporation Limited, has not been able to advance the road expansion work on time. The same work has now has faced significant setbacks due to relentless rainfall, severely impacting progress.

Had the company completed the work on time, it would have been finished by now, and people would not have to suffer. Citing various reasons, the Chinese company is delaying the work, thereby hindering development in Nepal. Now, the rain has further compounded the delays caused by China State Engineering Corporation Limited, hampering Nepal’s progress.

After the expiry of the deadline on coming July 23, the company has applied for project extension for one more year.

“The company has applied for an extension citing various reasons”, Chief of the eastern section of Narayangadh-Butwal Road Expansion Project Ashish Thapa Magar said, adding, “The company has applied for an extension citing old reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic that spread at the time of commencement of the work, late approval for cutting down the trees, delay in shifting the electric pole”. Magar said that they are in discussion on how many days it would be appropriate to extend the deadline based on the request by the company. “The consultant and we work together on the extension of deadline”, he said, adding, “We will forward our recommendation to the ministry for timeline expansion”.

Though the timeline extension approval will come before July 23, it cannot be predicted how many days will be extended for the project, he noted.

“We have now focused on making the road traffic easier as the road expansion work could not be carried out”, he said, adding, “The construction company has put its human resource and equipment to ease the traffic in the areas where the road is blocked”. He said that the contractor has been assigned to repair potholes on the road, place pebbles in the area where the road is slippery due to rain and remove the landslide debris. “The contractor company had been reducing its resources a week ago since the onset of monsoon this year”, he said, adding, “The work has been halted as the road expansion work could not be carried out due to rain”.