With the Narayanghat-Mugling road playing a major role in Nepal’s trade with India and other countries, this section has long required improvement.
The department said the consultant will carry out a feasibility study and also prepare designs for new bridges and maintenance of other bridges under the Road Sector Development Project funded by the World Bank (WB).
Currently, there are 18 medium bridges on the Narayanghat-Mugling section that were built more than three decades ago. According to the department which is carrying out the study with the support of the WB, the new crossings to be built will be of 9-m standard.
The current 5.5-m bridges have made it difficult for vehicles to pass easily from two directions simultaneously.
Amid the necessity for road improvement, the government is also working on a separate project—Nepal-India Regional Trade and Transport Project (NIRTTP)—that will widen the 33-km Narayanghat-Mugling road to 9-11m. The WB has extended $99 million loans, including $69 million in soft loans and $30 million grant for this project.
Arjung Jung Thapa, spokesperson for the department, said whether to build completely new bridges or improve the existing ones to 9-m on the Narayanghat-Mugling stretch would depend on the feasibility study.
“We hope to start bridge work from fiscal year 2015-16,” he said.
An estimated 90 percent of Nepal’s total international trade traffic (about 6,000 vehicles per day) passes through this section, and the narrow road has remained as bottleneck for years.
The NIRTTP, which is also funded by the WB, will mainly work on modernising transit arrangements between Nepal and India, strengthening trade-related institutional capacity and improving selected trade-related infrastructure.
According to the department, the consultant to be hired by September this year would prepare detail design for the construction of about 54 news bridges , maintenance of around 51 existing bridges and update detail design study for the construction of 5 bridges , including the bridges on the Narayanghat-Mugling section of the Prithivi Highway.
The planned new crossings fall on Chhinchu-Jajarkot Road, Shitalpati-Musikot Road, Nepalgunj-Surkhet-Jumla Road, Tallodhungeswor-Dailekh Road, Kalangagad (Bagthala)- Chainpur Road and Satbanjh-Gokuleswor-Darchula Road besides in Narayanghat-Mugling Road.
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