Brigadier General and Project chief of The Kathmandu-Terai/Madhes Fast Track (Expressway) (KTFT) Sharad Lal Shrestha has said that Nepal Army to gear up the cconstruction of the road after ending the lockdown.

He said that the construction has entered the second phase after completing almost all earthwork related works. Addrssing a press conference through a video conference from the Army Headquarters, Brigadier General Shrestha said that the project will complete as per the schedule despite disturbance by the nationwide lockdown.

"We have reached the second phase of this project after the KTFT project office inked an agreement with Yooshin Engineering Corporation, Korea JV, as an international consultant,," said Brigadier General Shrestha.

The project will likely to complete in Mid-July, 2024. He said that the project office has prepared a holistic approach in which 11 separate clusters were designed to begin the remaining works of the project in specified timeline.

Shrestha said that the project office and Yooshin Engineering had inked an agreement on May 15, 2020, according to Shrestha.

With the agreement, the Project's remaining work of constructing three tunnels of 6.41 km and 87 high-rise bridges under the supervision of the Yooshin and the NA will take place after their arrival in Nepal.

The physical progress report of the KTFT, one of the national pride projects of the government, for the fiscal year (2018/19) is 11.11 per cent and the financial progress 9.10 per cent, according to Brigadier Shrestha. Despite the lockdown, the NA has been giving continuity to the project's work partially.