FORMER KING FLYING FOR NEW DELHI WEDNESDAY

FORMER KING FLYING FOR NEW DELHI WEDNESDAY
Kathmandu, 11 Jan..: Former King Gyanendra is flying for New Delhi
Wednesday, Annapurna Post reports quoting former press secretary Phadiraj
Pathak.
He’ll stay in New Delhi Wednesday and proceed to Jaipur Thursday to attend the
wedding of a relative
He’ll have high-level political talks during a fortnight’s stay in India.
The former king will return to New Delhi from Jaipur.
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DOZEN ROADS TO BE RECLASSIFIED HIGHWAYS
Kathmandu, 11 Jan.: The government is preparing to reclassify about half a dozen roads that have been completed or are under construction as highways. The Department of Roads (DoR) has been holding discussions on its potential recommendations to the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, The Kathmandu Post reports.
As of now, there are 15 highways and 51 feeder roads as specified in the Nepal Gazette. The department has also been working on finalising a list of around 200 feeder roads.
The roads planned to be declared highways include the Ring Road in Kathmandu (28 km), Outer Ring Road (72 km), Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track (81.8 km), Mid-Hills Highway (1,776 km), Tarai’s Postal Roads (1,034 km) and the Shabha (Mahendranagar)-Bramhadev Road (13.3 km). The department will also declare 145 roads to be feeder roads.
According to DoR officials, the declaration of these roads as highways and feeder roads officially in the Gazette would help the department to undertake the responsibility for such roads under the Strategic Road Network for setting up standards, maintenance works and obtaining funds from donor agencies. As of now, the responsibility for maintaining these roads lies with local bodies and the projects that are constructing them.
Work on the Postal Roads and Mid-Hill Highway has been going on from the beginning when they were identified as highways. However, the government has not formally declared them to be highways by publishing a notice in the Gazette.
As per the government for highways, a road should have a 25-m right of way (ROW) on both sides from the middle line. However, this is not been followed strictly for a long time because of which invasion of ROW has created problems to the government to manage national roads.
Similarly, feeder roads have to have a 15-m ROW and encroachers can be removed from such areas based on the Public Roads Act 1974. A ROW is a strip of land that is granted through an easement or other mechanism for transportation purposes such as for a highway, trail, driveway and rail line.
Pramila Bajracharya, project manager of Assets Management, Contract Management and Quality Control Project (ACQMP), said that they had corresponded with regional offices to find out whether there is any other road left to be listed as highways or feeder roads. “We have prepared a list of new highways and feeder roads, however, the number can go up or down based on further studies,” she added.
The department is planning to send a final list of the roads to the Physical Planning Ministry within two weeks . The list will be submitted to the cabinet for its endorsement and publication of a notice in the Gazette.
A senior official of the department said that the department had tried to declare some roads as highways and feeder roads five years ago based on a report of the Priority Investment Plan for 10 years. “We could not do so at that time for interference by political parties,” the official added.
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HOTEL RADDISON TO ADD 100 MORE ROOMS WITH RS.350 MILLION INVESTMENT

Kathmandu, 11 Jan.: Hotel Raddison will add 100 more rooms with
an investment of Rs 350 million, Nagarilk reports.
Following the expansion, the hotel will have 260 rooms.
Hotel Hyatt has 290 rooms and Soaltee 273 rooms.
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