Kathmandu June 10:

The Jogbani-Kimathanka road is near completion with only 14 kilometres left. This is the main trade route of State-1 linking Jogbani of India to Kimathanka of Sankhuwasabha district on Nepal-China border. Construction of the Jogbani-Kimathanka road, a national pride project, is in full swing, chief of the North-South Road Division Office Sankhuwasabha, Gautam Kumar Shrestha, said. The road passes through Chepuwa, Hatiya, Makalu rural municipality, Chichila rural municipality, Khandbari municipality, Dharmadevi municipality, Dhankuta Mahalaxmi municipality, Pakhribas municipality, Dhankuta municipality, Sahid Bhoomi municipality, Bhedetaar, Sunsari Dharan, Itahari and Biratnagar of the State-1. Nepal Army has been assigned the responsibility of blasting off the rock face on the road alignment in Sankhuwasabha for facilitating the road construction. The Army is undertaking construction of the road at difficult places where rock-cliffs stand on the way of the road while The North-South Koshi Road Project has got the responsibility of construction of the general road of the 162 kilometres Khandbari-Kimathanka section of the trade route. Shrestha said work pertaining to construction of bunkers for filling with explosives has reached the final stage. According to him, the road has to be constructed by blasting off the rock-cliff at many locations on the remaining 14 kilometres Chepuwa-Chhumsur- Ghodgoppa section. Shrestha shared that so far three billion has been spent on the construction of the road. The North-South Koshi Road Project is carrying out the upgrading works on the Khandbari-Kimathanka section. He said work on construction of half a dozen concrete bridges is also underway at various places along the road in Barun at Bhotkhola rural municipality-4 and Makalu rural municipality.