Construction of Nepal's mega tunnel highway project begins

Nepal Purwardhar Bikash Company Limited (NPBCL), Nepal's first public limited company in charge of building a national toll highway, on Monday formally initiated the construction work of its 58-km road project, the company officials said. Initiated by private sector under "4P", public, private, people partnership model, the Kathmandu-Hetauda Tunnel Highway is one of the Nepal's largest infrastructure work. This is also the first road project in the Himalayan nation envisioned and developed by the private sector using its own resources and expertise. "After finishing all procedural, documents-related and preparatory works, our company is proud to announce the beginning of the construction of this nationally-important project," Kush Kumar Joshi, chairman of NPBCL, told Xinhua. The highway starting from Balkhu in Kathmandu will have three tunnels with a collective distance of 4.5 km in Chobhar, Kulekhani and Bhaise to reach Hetauda. The development of the 4 lane expressway has been initiated in the context of much talked about and most desired short cut route out of the valley, said a press release issued by the company. The company said that this highway will connect entire western followed by southern and eastern parts of Nepal through Hetauda and will significantly boost overall economic growth of the corridor, region and the whole country. Nepal's Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport ( MoPIT) had signed a final (concession) agreement with NPBC to construct the highway in the second week of May this year, while the ministry in the third week of the same month issued a letter of permission to the company, paving the way to start the construction of the project.