Kanchanpur, March 27: Construction of the four-lane bridge over the Mahakali River in Kanchanpur has resumed after five months.
It may be noted that the contractor had halted the ongoing construction of the bridge since the first week of October 2023, after not receiving payment of millions of rupees as per the plan.
Some days ago, the contractor company informed that remaining construction related works would be completed within six months after the government cleared the payment for works done last year.
As informed, 90.19 per cent fiscal progress has been achieved in the construction of 8.6-km six-lane road along with the four-lane concrete bridge. The construction of the road had started in 2074 BS.
Engineer at Kumar-CFEC JV, Kishore Raj Pandey said that Rs 85 million has been recently provided to the company for last year’s work.
He informed that the embankment design of a pond being constructed along the bridge has been approved and is under the process of being submitted to the Department of Roads for ‘variation’.
Due to the variation, Rs 150 million is still due, he said, adding 1,500 meters of the 8.06 kilometers six-lane access road has yet to be blacktopped in the project.
“All the work of the bridge can be completed within six months if there is no shortage of funds.” The bridge being constructed at a cost of Rs 3.66 billion is being developed as a trade point of the far-west. Along with the bridge, the construction of a dry port at Dodhara Chandani across the Mahakali river is also in the process.
A pond has been constructed on both sides of the bridge to be made into a tourist destination. Two ponds larger than one square kilometers have been constructed on the north side and two ponds of 0.3 square kilometers on the south side. The work of ‘variation’ had been postponed due to problems in the design of the pond last year.
