Growing up, I vividly remember being taught that transportation is one of the pillars of a country’s economy. Still today, we are well aware that good transportation is one of the major determinants of a country's development. And it is sad to say that, while every curriculum states the importance of good transportation facilities, our nation still lags in this area.
While having difficult and poor transportation facilities in rural areas, even the road conditions in urban places are in critical condition. The Department of Roads administers National Highways under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (Nepal). According to the Statistics of National Highway SNH-2020/21, there are 80 National Highways in Nepal, which are 11178.
92 KM `in total length. While these highways are major sources of connecting routes and movement of goods or people, the conditions in these areas are not as good as expected. Highlighting this issue, many travellers suffering throughout many years would be the Butwal-Narangadh highway project, which is a part of an east-west highway.
Mahendra Highway is the longest and the only highway in Nepal connecting Mechi on the east to Mahakali on the west. Every day thousands of people travel through this highway. Butwal-Narayangadh being a small part of this major highway brings a lot of difficulty for people to travel back and forth in this area.
Having my hometown in that area, I have seen the road condition being worse and mostly no improv.