By Smita Adhikari
Pokhara, May 28: There are a host of roads in the country that are both historically and culturally significant, some of which are in dilapidated condition or yet to be constructed from scratch. One of them is Sishuwa- Sisaghat corridor in Kaski district which was conceived as Kathmandu-Jumla Highway during the time of late King Mahendra.
Recently, Rupa Rural Municipality in the district has upgraded the corridor by constructing it as a motorable road, materalising the dream of linking Kathmandu with Jumla via Pokhara. The road now links three districts -- Lamjung, Tanahun and Kaski.
“It is one of the shortest ways to reach the headquarters of all the three districts too, so the road construction project had always been a top priority for us," Chair of the Municipality Nawaraj Ojha said, adding, “The road has stories of history and culture for us to tell. Keeping this in mind, we wasted no time starting the project after we took the office of the municipality.”
According to historian Dr. Jug Man Gurung, who is also the Vice Chancellor of Nepal Academy, the road starts from Hanuman Dhoka and passes through Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha, Tanahun, Kaski, Syangja and Palpa districts and others before reaching Jumla district.
Well-paved, the 16-km-long road has significantly curtailed the journey time. It starts from Shuwa in Pokhara-30 and passes through other wards within Pokhara metropolis before reaching to Sisaghat in Lamjung, crossing all the wards of the Rupa Municipality. The construction of the road started at the initiation of lawmaker and former Health Minister Khagaraj Adhikari from 2018.
According to Adhikari, the construction was laid out during King Mahendra's time considering tourism prospects as well as to ease the access of rural areas to the big cities like Kathmandu.