A Chinese expert team has arrived in Kathmandu on Wednesday to take tunnel construction work under Kathmandu/Terai-Madhes Fast Track (Expressway) Project ahead.
A 14-member expert team including the project manager of China’s Poly Changda Engineering Company Limited, which has been awarded the contract for the construction of Package No. 2 Dhedre-Lendanda Tunnel under the project, has arrived in Kathmandu, according to Nepali Army Headquarters on Thursday.
The team members, who came by a chartered flight from Guangzhou under the coordination of the Nepali Army, are scheduled to reach the site within this week and begin the preliminary round of works.
The team that came for the main work of tunnel design also includes tunnel, bridge and road engineers, said Nepali Army spokesperson and Brigadier General Shantosh Ballave Poudyal.
An agreement was reached with Poly Changda on May 14, 2021, to construct the Dhedre-Lendanda tunnel in Makwanpur district under the project, a prioritized and one of the national pride projects of the government, at Rs. 28.53 billion.
The team will speed up the design work by setting up an office at the site. Before this, a group from the same company had already begun the survey work after visiting the site, Poudyal said.
Poly Changda’s team has come to Kathmandu showing determination and readiness to complete the design work within six months of the agreement. The agreement stipulates that the tunnel should be completed within three years of the design being completed. The overall project works will move on under engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.
The Army had signed contract agreements with China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited for Package No. 1 and Poly Changda Engineering Company Limited for Package No. 2. An agreement has been reached to build the first package at Rs. 21.3 billion. The first package has one and the second package has two short tunnels having a total length of 1.34 km. The length of the first phase tunnel is 1.4 km.
The agreement was signed by Bikash Pokharel, chief of the project on behalf of the Expressway, and Su Yan, executive director for Package No. 1 and Zhu Tingyu Barbara, chief project manager of Package No. 2.
As per the agreement, the construction company has been given six months’ design period and three years’ construction deadline.
Of the 11 clusters built by the Army to complete the project within the stipulated time of the FY 2023/24, the contracts of the remaining nine clusters are in the process. After that, all the works will pick up speed simultaneously, said spokesperson Pouydal.
After the construction of the Expressway based on the standards of the Asian Highway, the distance of road transport from the Central and Eastern Terai to the Kathmandu Valley will be significantly reduced.
The construction of the Expressway from Khokana in Lalitpur to Nijgadh in Bara district on the East-West Highway is expected to expedite the country’s economic development and prosperity, he said.
Source : TRN,
