PALPA: Preparations are underway to begin operating vehicles through the under-construction Siddhababa Tunnel from mid-December.
The Siddhababa Tunnel Project Office in Butwal has expedited work to bring the tunnel’s main structure and associated infrastructure to the final stage.
Project Chief Nawaraj Bastola said the road inside the 1,126-meter-long tunnel and other civil works have been completed and preparations are being made to allow vehicles to operate through the tunnel by December.
“The arrival of construction materials was delayed by about a month due to rainfall and the Bhote Koshi floods. We expect the materials to arrive within a day or two and will then resume the remaining work inside the tunnel. We plan to operate vehicles by mid-December,” Bastola said.
He said the original schedule was affected after the Bhote Koshi floods swept away electrical equipment that had been brought to the project site.
Currently, road surfacing inside the tunnel is underway, while finishing work on the technical building is also in progress. Civil works, including tunnel lining and ground-wall slope construction, have been completed, while electromechanical works remain to be finished, Bastola said.
According to Soumya Anand, information officer and engineer at the project office, the tunnel has achieved 69.70 percent physical progress and 63.55 percent financial progress so far.
Anand said excavation and lining of the bypass tunnel, construction of 14 culverts, and prestressing works inside the tunnel have been completed. Three bypasses have also been constructed.
After the remaining work inside the tunnel is completed, the project will focus on making the area outside the tunnel safer, Anand said. Rockfall protection, rockfall barriers and slope stabilization works will be carried out to protect the area from landslides and falling rocks.
The project is being constructed by China State Construction Engineering Corporation under a contract worth Rs 7.342 billion.
The section of the Siddhartha Highway between the lower Siddhababa Temple and Dobhan in Palpa is considered highly prone to landslides and rockfalls. The tunnel is being constructed with government funding to improve the safety of this hazardous section of the highway.
Once the tunnel comes into operation, travelers will be less exposed to the risk of landslides and falling rocks in the Siddhababa area. The project is expected to directly benefit residents of Gulmi, Arghakhanchi, Palpa and Pyuthan in Lumbini Province, as well as Syangja, Parbat, Baglung and Myagdi in Gandaki Province.
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