Damauli. The bridge over the Madi river being constructed at Damauli of Tanahun under the Muglin-Pokhara road has reached the final stage. So far, 71 per cent of the work on the Madi river bridge connecting Byas municipality-4 and 5 has been completed.

Engineer of Muglin-Pokhara Road Project (Eastern Section) Bishnu Prasad Pandey said that the construction of the bridge is going on at a rapid pace. “There will be six spans on the bridge. The construction company had signed an agreement on August 11, 2022 for the completion of the 315-metre-long bridge within three years at a cost of Rs 1.21 billion.

The bridge will be four-lane with the longest arch design of the Prithvi Highway. At present, the two-lane bridge over the river is 370 meters long. Engineer Pandey said that the new bridge is being constructed at a distance of about 50 meters from the same bridge.

A total of 13 bridges have already been constructed from Abukhaireni to Jamuna under the eastern section of the Muglin-Pokhara road project. 86 percent of the road work under the eastern section has been completed. The blacktopping of 41.45 km from Abukhaireni-Jamune has been completed,” he said.

The work on the eastern section was started from April 15, 2018 after signing an agreement on January 1, 2017. China Communications Construction has bagged the contract for the eastern section. The four-lane road is being constructed with the help of a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in view of the increasing vehicular traffic on the road drawn in 2026 BS. The contract for the eastern section has been awarded at a cost of Rs 6.21 billion.

The contract for the eastern section has expired on July 15. Pandey said that a recommendation has been made to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure for the extension of the deadline as some work is pending.