In the first phase, the government, under the grant assistance of the Chinese government, is planning to improve 9.5 km road stretch from Gangabu-Jhamshikhel.
Under the improvement project, the current two-lane Ring Road will be widened to a four-lane two-way main road, a four-lane two-way relief road, two-way bicycle path and two-way pedestrian path, including bus stations and parking lots.
Kamal Raj Pandey, joint secretary at the ministry, said they are corresponding with Chinese authority concerned for the design of the road to be improved.
“The designing work will start within three months for the first phase,” he added.
A simple urban flyover and three pedestrian over passes will also be build in the first phase improvement work as per the preliminary exchange of note between the two governments. Besides, the Chinese grant assistance will be used for the maintenance of bridges along the main road.
Ministry officials said although it has not been fixed yet, the improvement project will select Kalanki Chwok for the construction of the flyover having a provision of signalised intersection underneath for pedestrians.
The Chinese government on Feb 28, 2011, had agreed to provide a grant assistance of Rs 547 million for the widening of the Ring Road along with other mutually agreed projects. Ministry officials said the cost for widening the road is estimated at Rs 200 million per km, and the government is also lobbying with China to increase the grant assistance.
The government aims to accomplish the Ring Road improvement work within the next three years under three phases. However, the second and third phases, according to ministry officials, will be determined only after holding consultations with Chinese technical experts.
Apart from the plan for the main road, the detailed design of the improvement of the Ring Road will devise plans for management of public utility services lines such as drinking water, electricity, telecommunications wires and demolishing or incorporating roadside physical infrastructure affecting the road widening work.
Ring Road locations like—Narayan Gopal Chowk, Chabahil, Gaushala and Koteshwor—where there are fewer areas for road widening will see either demolishing of structures or there will only be four lane roads, according to a ministry official. A high-level official at the Department of Roads said the
government should also consider projects like Melamchi drinking water and development of mass transport system such as Metro in the Kathmandu Valley while improving the Ring Road.
“Since we are talking about channelling a huge volume of drinking water from Melamchi River to Kathmandu, there should be a long term vision on it,” added the official.
No comments:
Post a Comment