Banepa Road Dispute Settled, Two-Month Blacktopping Target

Road work has resumed in the Banepa market area of the Araniko Highway after the government said a long-running dispute over the road's design had been settled. Infrastructure Development Minister Sunil Lamsal said the dispute ended after repeated facilitation by his ministry, and that blacktopping in the Banepa area is targeted for completion within two months. Crews are currently removing the old road surface.

The stretch is part of the Suryabinayak-Dhulikhel Road Project, which is widening 15.8 km of the highway, from Suryabinayak in Bhaktapur to Dhulikhel in Kavrepalanchok, to six lanes. The road is a key route out of the Kathmandu Valley toward Dhulikhel, the BP Highway, and the Kodari border.

Work in Banepa had been held up over the road's centre line and its intersections. Residents wanted the main central lane built at its current level rather than raised, and crossing points at every intersection.

Bijay Kumar Mahato, the project's chief superintendent engineer, said the project kept its approved design but partly met these demands. It added culverts, widened drainage crossings from 600 mm to 900 mm in diameter, and built two or three more outlets to stop water from the north flooding the area. He said keeping every junction open for crossing would make traffic difficult to manage, so not all demands could be met.

According to the minister, the Sanga-Dhulikhel section is 7.9 km long including service lanes, and 6.5 km of it has been blacktopped. The remaining 1.4 km will be upgraded to four lanes with service lanes, with completion targeted within this fiscal year.

The project is being built in two road packages, Suryabinayak to Sanga and Sanga to Dhulikhel. The Sanga-Dhulikhel contract was signed in December 2022 and the Suryabinayak-Sanga contract soon after, and both deadlines have since been extended. The Sanga-Dhulikhel package is further ahead, with one layer of blacktop laid on the main lanes and much of the service lane work done.

On the Suryabinayak side, Mahato said about 1.5 km of six-lane road is nearly complete with one layer of blacktop left, the underpass at Sanga is about 90 percent done, and the contractor's deadline runs to Falgun.

Bridges over Mahadev Khola and Jagati Khola are being built under a design-and-build contract. Mahato said design approval was slowed after Banepa locals objected that a bridge built higher than the existing one could worsen flooding. He said the work is now on track, with the bridges due by Magh.

Until the new surface is laid, drivers on the Araniko Highway should expect construction work through the Banepa market stretch.