Mahakali Corridor Road Construction Project

Background
Nepal is a landlocked mountainous country. Here,90% of trade traffic is dependent on
roads.The road sector is critical for a country’s development since it connects various
geographical and economic sectors. The Road Network is in charge of connecting a
country’s rural areas to markets in order to support various economic activities such as
tourism, agriculture, industrial electrical and other sectors of the economy. It is in a
critical situation in underdeveloped countries since more modern modes of
transportation are prohibitively expensive. The Mid-hill Highway (1,750km) East-West
Corridor carries 60% of the country’s trade transport.

Project Description
The Mahakali corridor road construction project is one of the mega projects which is
designed and executed for trade expansion up to Tinkar, the tri-country border entry
point of Nepal, India, and China. As of 2079, only 22 kms of road has been blacktopped
and it h as been 13 years since the time has elapsed since the project’s initiation in
2066 BS as the design was not fully adhered to and substandard materials and work
methods were sometimes used. Recent heavy traffics, poor initial construction and
insufficient maintenance had caused serious deterioration of most road sections prior to
the start of the Project. As Nepal moves toward a market-based economy, rehabilitation
of the national road network connecting the key centers of the country as well as routine
road maintenance are essential for the country’s economic development. The Nepal
Army has been assigned the responsibility of constructing 79 kilometers of the Mahakali
Corridor highway. The Army got the responsibility of constructing 75 kilometers road
from Kothedhar-Tinkar section as per the decision of the Council of Ministers on
January 31, 2022, and of building four kilometers section of the road from Tusharpani to
Kothedhar as per a Cabinet decision on January 31, 2022.It is stated that the fiscal
progress of the Darchula-Tinkar road is 91.54 per cent and physical progress 99 percent
as of Aug 11, 2022.

Project Location
The Mahakali Corridor roadway starts from Brahmadev of Kanchanpur district and
reaches Tinkar in Darchula district. It passes by Dadeldhura and Baitadi districts.

Objective
The main objective of this project is to establish a trading point for the Nepalese and
Indian market from China.
Problem
The main issue with this project is that only 30 kilometers of the total 413 kilometers of
road have been black-topped even though 12 years have passed since the construction
was started. The construction of this road started in 2009.The section is vulnerable to
landslides and water-induced disasters during monsoon.

Environmental impact: Roads can have both positive and negative influences on people
and the environment. On the positive side roads provide the opportunity of mobility and
transport for people and goods. On the negative side roads occupy land resources and
form barriers to animals. They can also cause adverse impacts on natural water
resources and discharge areas.