Often described as the best road to drive around in the Valley, especially at nights when there is a little traffic, the Tinkune-Suryabinayak stretch of the Araniko Highway represents the future of Nepal's national highways.

Once a ragged two-lane road clogged with vehicles for hours on end, the road was transformed into a luxurious six-lane speedway in late 2008--42 years after the completion of the Araniko Highway.  Although only 9.14 km of the 115 km highway was given the facelift by May 2011, its effects on the Valley's socio-economic sphere, especially to that of the areas immediate to the stretch, have been immense--both good and bad.

With hours-long traffic jams at Jadibuti now almost non-existent, vegetables enter the Valley a few-hours fresher and cheaper. Vehicular movement has become far more smoother now and the number of vehicles plying the road has gone up. So have the land prices in Thimi and Bhaktapur municipalities.

Despite incidents of young people racing motorbikes at a speed, usually during nights, the number of road accidents, however, has gone down. Also on its way downwards is roadside businesses.

Raini Didi, a tea-shop owner at Jadibuti for the last 10 years, has been hit hard by the road expansion. Earlier, there was enough parking space for 15 cabs around her tea-shop. The drivers were her regular customers. She could easily make Rs 2,200 per day selling tea and snacks then. These days, after the road was widened, Raini Didi hardly makes Rs 1,000 a day. The road comes right up to her shop, forcing the cabs to move elsewhere. Even after the completion of the service lane, her patrons will not be returning with no space to park their taxis.

Just a few yards away from Raini Didi's tea-shop is Kamakhya petrol station, which has also been affected by the road expansion. Heavy vehicles could no longer enter the fuelling centre because of the guard rail along the road. Only cars and motorcycles can drive in through the tiny gap between the railing left by the road authority after the protest from the station owner.

"We almost had to close down the business like the other petrol pumps because the railing ran right in front of our establishment," Dev Lama, the manager of the petrol station, says. "We protested and  the government finally relented. A gap was left for the vehicles to enter the station, but not without making it difficult for heavy vehicles."

As a result, the diesel sale of Kamakhya petrol station has gone down significantly from around Rs 4,000 to Rs 1,600 a day. But transaction overall has remained unchanged since the petrol sale is better than before. "We get more of the smaller vehicles and motorbikes now to offset the decrease in diesel sale," says Lama.  

Bhaikaji Tiwari, chief of the Kathmandu Valley Town Development Implementation Committee, is not surprised that roadside businesses have been hit by the road expansion. He warns that the same is going to happen to street vendors along the Kathmandu Valley’s ring road after the road widening project has completed. With railings on either side of the road, no one can park their vehicles onto the shoulder of the road to step inside shops to make purchase, or stop for tea and snacks.

"Anyone thinking of buying land and starting a roadside business along the ring road must learn from the Tinkune-Suryabinayak stretch. If your shop falls right next to the service lane, you are lucky. If not, your business will not fare well," says Tiwari. Despite this warning, land prices in Thimi and Bhaktapur municipalities, adjacent to the Tinkune-Suryabinayak road, are soaring of late.

According to Hari Bakhati, chief of Bhaktapur land revenue office, with the expansion of the road, the price of a ropani of land is the same in both municipalities. A ropani of land in Thimi now costs 13 percent higher than it did before, up to Rs 12.4 million from Rs 11 million. In Bhaktapur municipality, the rate of increase is at 22 percent, from Rs 9.85 million to Rs 12 million.

"Rs 12 million is the minimum we've set. The rate at which people are buying land is much higher," says Bakhati.    

Raini Didi agrees that the railings have not affected land purchases. "The price of land is going up. It's good for the landowner, but not for people like us."

Her only consolation from road expansion, she says, is the decline in road accidents, which means the safety of her two children.  The overhead bridge right next to her shop is a breather. "Before the construction of the bridge, crossing the street was unsafe," she says.

 There are only four overhead bridges along the Tinkune-Suryabinayak stretch, at Jadibuti, Lokanthali, Kaushaltar and Gatthaghar. Eleven more are yet to be constructed.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Keshav Adhikari, the head of the Metropolitan Traffic Police Department (MTPD), credits overhead bridges as one of the reasons behind the reduction in road accidents. "With more overhead bridges being constructed, the road will be safer," he says.

The Tinkune-Suryabinayak Road has witnessed a decline in the number of traffic accidents after the road expansion. 

Fiscal Year : No of vehicular accidents : No of fatalities
2010/11 : 583 : 28
2011/12 : 491 : 29
2012/13 : 395  : 18
2013/14 (til mid-Dec) : 178 : 11

source:the kathmandu post,6 jan 2014