With the construction of several east-west and north-south highways in progress, Nepal is going to have a better road network within a couple of years. The Madan Bhandari Highway passing through the Chure hills and Inner Terai is among them. This is one of the three other highways that are under construction parallel to the Mahendra Highway linking the country’s east to the west. The Postal Highway is being built on the south of the historic Mahendra Highway while construction of the Pushpalal (Mid Hill) Highway is going on. Bahundangi in Mechinagar Municipality of Jhapa district is the eastern-most point of this highway while its western end is Rupal of Dadeldhura district. The 1,250-km road extends from the Mechi River in the east to the Mahakali River in the west. The government targets to complete this vital project by 2025. The Madan Bhandari Highway is regarded as an important alternative to Mahendra Highway. It will be a lifeline for people living in the entire Chure belt and its adjoining areas and open way for development and prosperity.

Despite the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction of this highway is now gathering momentum. Most road sections under this project have already been blacktopped while Detailed Project Reports (DPR) are under preparation for remaining others. Of the total estimated length of the highway, 465-km is being built by other projects under the Road Department and Road Division Offices. The highway is going to open numerous new roads and connect the existing ones with other key strategic routes along the way. Endorsed by the government in May 2018, the Dharan-Hetauda section is expected to complete within the current fiscal year. Some 80 bridges have already been built under this 250-km road section alone. A deal has been reached to construct additional 18 bridges within the next three years. The project had begun work at the 318-km Dharan-Chatara-Gaighat-Sindhuli-Hetauda section some 12 years back. At present, construction is underway on the 135-km east section (from Basaha in Udayapur to Sindhuli) and the 115-km west section (Bhiman of Sindhuli-Hetauda). Similarly, a separate office has been set up in Damak for the construction of 135-km Bahundangi-Dharan section.

The highway stretches across Sunsari’s Dharan to Chatara, Udayapur’s Gaighat-Katari, Makwanpur’s Hetauda, Rampur of Palpa and Ridi-Tamghas of Gulmi. After crossing Pyuthan, Tulsipur, and Sahajpur, the highway extends to Rupal near India's border. The project has made headway in road construction along the Dharan-Chatara-Gaighat-Sindhuli to Hetauda with 100-km already blacktopped of the whole 134-km-long segment from Chaudandi Municipality-4 of Udayapur to Sindhuli’s Bhiman. The project aims to complete the construction of the Bhiman-Basaha section in the next one-and-half months. More than 140 bridges have come into operation. According to a news report published in this daily on Monday, paving and upgrading of roads are going on in full swing in Dang and other parts of the Chure range. As there has been a growing pressure to complete the project within the next three years, the government has accorded top priority to it and helped intensify the process of designing DPRs for different sections of the highway. All the line agencies, including the project directorate, provincial and local governments, must work in a coordinated manner to complete the project within the stipulated timeframe. The monitoring team must make sure that the highway meets all the necessary requirements such as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the quality.