Lumbini, January 25. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today inaugurated a bridge over the Rapti River in the Rapti Valley, the capital of Lumbini Province. PM Oli reached the venue at Sisahaniya by helicopter of Nepali Army.

Chief Minister of Lumbini Province Shankar Pokharel, ministers, members of the Provincial Assembly, Chief District Officer Jaya Narayan Acharya, high ranking officials of security agencies and local people welcomed PM Oli.

The PM is scheduled to address a public gathering at Lalmatiya of Rapti Rural Municipality-2 following the inaugural programme.

This is the second longest RCC bridge of the country. It is 860 metres long and 10.5 metres wide. It connects Sisahaniya of Rapti Rural Municipality and Mahadewa of Gadhawa Rural Municipality. The construction of the bridge has been completed four months before the deadline.

The bridge has been constructed at a cost of one billion rupees. It has now become easier to travel to and from Sisahaniya and Mahadeva in Deukhuri region with the construction of this bridge. Before this, people used to travel by boat to cross the Rapti river and it was very risky during the rainy season when the river swelled.

People of the then Gobardiha Village Development Committee (VDC) and the then Sisahaniya VDC have been directly benefited with the construction of the bridge. Travel time has been reduced to 15 minutes after the construction of the bridge. Before it used to take one and half hour to travel by motor vehicle from the area beyond the Rapti river.

Then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ had laid the foundation of the bridge on December 7, 2016.

Meanwhile, the bridge has also developed as a tourism destination. Many visitors from Dang district and even other districts come to see the country’s second longest bridge.