Myagdi. Driver Sudip Khadka, who used to be scared two years ago when crossing Badarjung, Ghopte and Kavre Bhir on the border of Annapurna in Myagdi and Thasang rural municipality in Mustang under the Beni-Jomsom-Korla road, now drives with confidence.
“I used to be scared until I reached the grass from Kavre, which is located between the Kaligandaki below and the steep Akkara Bhir above,” he said. “After the road was widened and the slope was made and a fence was installed on the edge of Akkara Bhir, I can now drive with confidence.” The Beni-Jomsom-Korla road, a national pride of the Kaligandaki Corridor connecting India and China, has been widened and sloped in the most dangerous and narrow Kavre, Badarjung and Ghoptebhir areas, making travel easier, safer and reducing the risk of accidents.
The Beni-Jomsom-Korla road plan states that the two-kilometer road from Kavrebir to Ghansa has been widened by eight meters and sloped. “In many places, the road has been widened by breaking up the mountains using explosives,” said Bishnu Chapagain, the project engineer. “When the road was widened by cutting the walls and using explosives to widen the gorge created by the Kaligandaki flowing below, the mountain weakened and there was a risk of further landslides. In the Kavrevir area, the road was widened and graded using the ‘rock anchoring-rock nailing’ technology.”
According to him, the road was widened towards the dale by drilling into the mountain under the road and placing rods, concreted the base and built a solid wall. For rock anchoring, workers had drilled holes to place iron rods. Earlier, vehicles used to ply only one-way on the 3.5-meter-wide road. Currently, the road in this area has been widened to at least eight meters. A structure has been built to manage water from drains, streams, and roads through hume pipes.
Earlier, it used to take at least 30 minutes to cross the road in the Kavrevir, Badarjungvir, and Ghoptevir areas. Now, it can be crossed in five minutes. The road, which has been opened by cutting through steep hills from Kavrevir to Mustang’s Ghansa, faces the problem of rock falls and erosion by the Kaligandaki. In this place, where the Nepali Army opened the road in 2063 BS, vehicles have fallen, and moving vehicles have been buried and damaged by rocks and landslides falling from the cliff.
Narendra Neupane, project manager of Sharma-Gajurmukhi, the construction company of Tatopani-Ghasakhand on the Beni-Jomsom-Korala road, said that the workers have been working on the road expansion by adopting safety precautions even in adverse terrain. He said that the road expansion work in the Kavrevir-Badarjung Bhir area has been completed in two years. “The workers had hung on ropes on the cliff and made holes to place rods. The widened road has been sloped and cement pillars and iron sidebars have been placed on the side of the road,” he said. “Since there are many ‘rock falls’, the slope was done after it was seen that the blacktop road using DBSD technology would not hold up. Large rocks falling from the cliff have also caused damage in the area where the slope was made.”
Meanwhile, the work of upgrading the 10.5 km Tatopani-Ghasa section has reached its final stage. Ramesh Purja, Ward Chairman of Annapurna Rural Municipality-3 Dana, said that construction has recently gained momentum. The work of widening the road by 11 meters in areas other than the three kilometers where there is a risk of landslides has been completed, and the work of blacktopping using the slope and DBSD technology has reached its final stage. Neupane, Project Manager of the contractor company Sharma-Gajurmukhi, said that the road upgrading work will be completed within the current fiscal year and preparations will be made to hand it over to the planning office.
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