CHITWAN: The Narayangadh-Butwal road section, which has caused significant hardship for travelers for nearly seven years since construction began, has now become considerably easier to travel.
The journey from Narayangadh to Butwal now takes around two hours, and some private drivers say they have completed the trip in as little as one hour and 30 minutes.
Last year, many travelers were forced to spend the night on the road because of severe congestion around Daunne. During the monsoon and major festivals, people traveling between eastern and western Nepal often struggled to reach home on time.
Local gas industrialist Bimal Kalakheti said he traveled from Butwal to Narayangadh in one hour and 30 minutes last week. According to him, the road has become smooth and free of major obstacles.
Similarly, industrialist Prakash Acharya of Tilottama Municipality-4 in Rupandehi said he reached home from Narayangadh in one hour and 50 minutes while traveling with his family in a private vehicle. He recalled that in the past he would leave Narayangadh at 6:00 pm and sometimes arrive home only at 10:00 am the following morning because of long traffic jams in the Daunne area.
Media personality Prakash Gyawali, who traveled from Butwal to Narayangadh in two hours on Wednesday, said he had once spent more than 12 hours on the same route while traveling with his family during Dashain.
Another traveler from Bharatpur said he reached Butwal Chowk from Narayangadh in one hour and 44 minutes despite making two stops along the way.
Because of the poor condition of the road in previous years, many passengers traveling between Butwal, Palpa, and Chitwan were forced to use alternative routes through Pokhara, the Kaligandaki Corridor, or even travel by air via Kathmandu.
Bhuwan Baral, chairman of Chautari Yatayat Sewa Pvt. Ltd., said that buses that once remained stuck in traffic throughout the night can now complete the trip in about three hours, including passenger pick-up and drop-off stops. He added that vehicle breakdowns, which were once common on this section, have become much less frequent.
According to Shiva Khanal, engineer of the eastern section of the Narayangadh-Butwal Road Project, construction of both sections has reached about 92 percent completion. He said only road safety installations and drainage works remain at a few locations.
The Narayangadh-Butwal section is 113.35 km long and has been divided into two contract packages, both awarded to the same Chinese contractor. The project is being implemented at a cost of about Rs 16.99 billion, with 85 percent financed through a concessional loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and 15 percent funded by the Government of Nepal.
Construction began on Chaitra 8, 2075 BS under the Chinese state-owned company China State Construction. Although the original target was to complete the work within 42 months, the deadline has been extended several times.
The 65-km Narayangadh-Daunne section is referred to as the eastern section, while the 49-km Daunne-Butwal section is the western section.
Under the expansion project, the road has been upgraded from two lanes to four lanes, while six lanes have been constructed in densely populated market areas. About 28 km of market sections have been widened to six lanes, with the remaining stretches expanded to four lanes.
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