Nearly 11 years after the contract was first awarded, the expansion of the Bagmati Bridge at Tinkune–Suvidhanagar remains stalled. The project, initiated in 2014, saw early work halted after the Road Department found that the basement and pillars under construction did not meet design standards and used substandard materials.
Two incomplete pillars still stand as reminders of the abandoned effort. Although a new contract was issued on 26 July 2022, the project has since been stuck in the bridge design–approval process. The bridge was originally expected to be completed by February 2025, but construction has yet to begin.
A similar bridge expansion contract was also awarded in 2014 for the Kathmandu Bijuli Bazaar bridge, which was completed and brought into operation about three years ago. The government has prioritized bridge expansion in Kathmandu after rising traffic congestion made it clear that road widening alone was insufficient.
Senior Divisional Engineer Ashika Pokharel, head of the Kathmandu Ring Road Expansion Project, said construction could not start due to delays in approving the design submitted by the contractor. The design did not initially meet Road Department standards, she said, but has now been approved.
“There has been a delay because the design was not submitted as per the specified standards. Now the design has been approved, and preparations are underway to enter the construction phase,” she said.
The new bridge will follow an arch-style design similar to Bijuli Bazaar.
The project’s first major setback came when Pappu Construction, which received the contract on 20 Dec 2018 for around Rs 210m under the design-build method, began work and built three abutments, two of which were later found to be substandard. The department stopped the work, blacklisted Pappu in 2019, and restarted procurement.
YP Kiranteshwor JV was awarded a new contract on 29 July 2022 to build the 85-meter bridge expansion at a cost of Rs 240m, with a 42-month completion timeline. Originally overseen by the Kathmandu Valley Road Expansion Project in 2014, the project is now under the Kathmandu Ring Road Expansion Project. Three years after the new contract was issued, the bridge design has finally been approved, and Project Chief Pokharel said the contractor has been instructed to mobilize.
Since the project was supposed to be completed within this Magh, the contractor has already sought an extension. “If the delay is our fault, the time will be extended. If it is their fault, we will recover compensation,” said Pokharel. She added that approval processes have also moved forward because nearby branch roads must be closed and fenced before construction can begin.
After three years of waiting, YP Kiranteshwor JV is finally preparing to move to the site. Birbal Rai, a representative of Kiranteshwor Construction, said the company could not begin work earlier due to delays in design approval. He added that the first step will be demolishing the faulty structures built by the previous contractor.
“If the old structures can be demolished without local obstructions, we will start construction soon,” he said.
