BIRGUNJ: The road-widening project along Birgunj’s main road has entered its final stage, with the Road Division Office preparing to remove the remaining houses and structures and complete the work by Monday.
Durga Prasad, an engineer at the Road Division Office in Hetauda assigned to Birgunj, said efforts are underway to resolve disputes that emerged during the road expansion around the Nepal Telecom building and Maisthan area. He said the remaining structures are expected to be removed by Monday morning, when dozers will be deployed to clear the sites. The survey work is also expected to be completed within a week, he added.
According to Prasad, most of the structures falling within the designated road boundary have already been removed, while the remaining demolition work is being carried out rapidly. Structures located behind Siddhartha Bank, near the Pampam Building and around the Hanuman Temple are currently being cleared.
He said demolition of partially removed structures is also progressing, as some property owners had only demolished portions of their buildings during the earlier phase of the road-widening drive.
In the first phase, the Road Division Office used dozers on April 19 and 20 to remove the front sections of around 1,200 houses and buildings located within the 25-metre road boundary on both sides of the main road. More than half a dozen dozers were mobilized simultaneously, with teams working from the Gandak area toward the north and from Miteri Bridge toward the south.
Property owners had been given 25 days to remove structures falling within the designated road boundary themselves. However, after many failed to clear the structures within the stipulated period, the Road Division Office launched the second phase of the demolition drive, again deploying dozers, Prasad said.
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