New Four-Lane Bridge Over Madi River Nears Completion

Kathmandu. The construction of a new four-lane bridge over the Madi River, connecting Vyas Municipality-4 and 5 in Tanahun along the Prithvi Highway, has reached its final stage.

The bridge, being built under the Muglin-Pokhara Road Expansion Project, has achieved 86 percent physical progress and 84 percent financial progress to date.

Although the target was to complete the construction within the current fiscal year, the work could not be finished, and a proposal has been made to extend the deadline by an additional 300 days. According to Engineer Vishnu Prasad Pandey, Information Officer for the Muglin-Pokhara Road Project (Eastern Section), most of the structural work on the bridge is complete, and preparations are underway to finalize the remaining tasks. Pandey mentioned that while 100 to 120 workers were engaged in construction daily until a few days ago, there has been a slight decrease in manpower as some workers have left due to domestic reasons.

The contract for this bridge, which will have six spans, was signed with ANK-JEC on August 11, 2022, for one billion 210 million rupees. In the initial phase, the bridge construction work was affected for about six months due to changes required in the design.

This new bridge is being built approximately 50 meters away from the existing 370-meter-long old two-lane bridge. Based on a modern 'arch design', this four-lane bridge is expected to become one of the most modern and attractive bridges on the Prithvi Highway due to its special structure and appealing appearance.

Under the Muglin-Pokhara Road Expansion Project, funded by a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the road section is being upgraded to four lanes. The construction work for the eastern section of this project is progressing at a cost of 6 billion 213 million 113 thousand rupees, and the western section at a cost of 7 billion 404 million 600 thousand rupees.

Photos: Nepal Photo Library