The Postal Highway has seen good progress with nine out of the 10 feeder roads under the highway having been completed.
The remaining one road is under construction in two packages, said project chief Rohit Kumar Bisural. Of the two packages, one has been completed and the Indian Embassy has handed over the project to the government of Nepal.
“Contracts have been awarded to construct the remaining road,” he informed. The road project links eastern Tarai to the west and northern parts of the country to southern Tarai region. Once the project is fully completed it will immensely benefit the people of the Tarai-Madhes region, Bisural added.
The road segments that have been completed are the 25-km Kanepokhari-Ranbeni road in Morang and 22-km Kalyanpur-Basain road in Saptari. Similarly, the 25-km Birendrabazaar-Yadukuwa-Mahinathapur and the 17-km Janakpur-Yadukuwa road in Dhanusha have also been completed.
Among other sections, the 27-km Jaleshwor-Hardi road and 25-km Maithan-Gaushala bazaar-Samsi road in Mahottari, 33-km Lamahi-Koilabas road in Dang and 40-km Tamagadhi-Simraunagadh road and the 33-km Manamat-Kalaiya-Matiawara road sections in Bara have also been completed.
Meanwhile, construction of a section of four kilometers has been halted for the moment due to a compensation row over the land acquisition for the project, Bisural said. The road project is funded by the Indian government.
Under the construction of the Birgunj-Thori road, blacktopping of up to five kilometres remains to be completed, he mentioned.
Construction of the 60-km road started in two packages. The first package (25 kilometres) has been completed and the other remains to be completed, Bisural informed. The project aims to complete the remaining construction works in the next three months, he said.
The National Planning Commission had set a target to complete the Postal Highway in fiscal year 2079/80.
