The government’s effort to expand the East-West Highway to four lanes has received a major boost with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approving $300m in loan assistance.
For the last few years, the government has been working on expanding the different sections of the highway with loans, particularly from the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
It’s been five years since the government started the expansion of the highway to a four-lane, there is still a long way to go before the entire highway is expanded.
The East-West Highway is the only highway that currently connects Nepal’s eastern border to the western border through the southern plains, thus is economically vital for the country. Though the Mid-Hill Highway aims to connect the eastern to western borders of the country through the hill regions, it is still a work in progress.
On Wednesday, ADB confirmed that it approved a $300m loan to expand the road from Kakarbhitta (Jhapa) to Laukahi (Sunsari) to a four-lane dual carriageway from the current two lanes.
Issuing a press statement, ADB has said the 95-km road section of the highway is a vital component of transport connectivity with India and Bangladesh. The Manila-based lender is supporting the expansion of the highway as part of its South Asia Sub-Regional Cooperation Highway Improvement Project. According to ADB, the existing road section will be upgraded to an Asian Standard Class I and Nepal Road Standard Class II.
The Department of Roads (DoR), the government agency under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport responsible for the expansion of the highway, has been working on the contractor selection process for the last several months. “We have sent the names of selected bidders to the ADB for approval,” said an official of the project directorate (Asian Development Bank) of DoR. “Once we get the approval, we plan to award the project to the contractor before the end of the current fiscal year in mid-July.”
ADB has also financed the expansion of the Butwal-Narayanghat section of the East-West Highway. In Nov 2019, China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited, the contractor for this section of the road, formally started the work in the field. Though the original deadline for widening the road from the current two lanes to six was on 7 Aug 2022, physical progress of the work has remained less than 20 percent till the deadline, according to DoR. Then, the department extended the deadline by another 386 days.
After DoR warned the Chinese contractor to terminate the contract, officials said that the contractor has now accelerated the work. “If the contractor continues at this pace, we should no longer terminate the contract,” a DoR official working at the Narayanghat-Butwal Road section said. According to the official, the contractor has also started blacktopping the road in certain sections.
In October 2018, ADB approved loans amounting to $180m to expand the road from Kanchanpur in Saptari to Kamala in Siraha on the East-West Highway. “Construction work is currently underway in this 87km section of road,” said the official of the project directorate (ADB).
However, DoR failed to call the tender for Kanchanpur to Laukahi section of the East-West Highway because of a delay in forest clearance. “As Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserves falls under the section of the road, we have not yet got forest clearance,” the official said, adding that a detailed project report of the section has already been prepared.
Besides ADB, the World Bank has also been supporting the expansion of a number of sections of the East-West Highway. An official at the Foreign Aid Implementation Section of DoR said that a detailed design is being prepared with the assistance of the World Bank to expand the Kamala-Dhalkebar-Pathalaiya section of the highway stretching 130 kilometers.
Likewise, DoR is also preparing a detailed design for the expansion of the 59 km Butwal-Gurusinghe-Chanauta section of the East-West Highway.
“Detailed designs of both sections will be finalized in the next 3-4 months,” said the department official. “Our plan is to invite biddings and award contracts in the next fiscal year 2023/24.”
In June 2020, the World Bank approved a loan package of $450 to improve the Kamala-Dhalkebar-Pathlaiya road section of the East-West Highway along with the Nagdhunga-Naubise-Mugling road section of the Prithvi Highway.
The World Bank is supporting for improvement of these road sections as a part of its Nepal Strategic Road Connectivity and Trade Improvement Project. According to the World Bank, both road sections are crucial to Nepal’s connectivity and trade with India and other countries.
