The work for the construction of a petroleum storage depot in Rupandehi has progressed rapidly.

Initially, the land arrangement work has been carried forward for the construction of the storage house.

A storage depot will be built on the banks of the Rohini River on the border between Omsatiaya and Rohini Rural Municipality.

The land management work for the construction of petroleum depot has reached its final stage.

The land management work was started from last May to build the Lumbini provincial level petroleum storage depot.

According to Engineer Pradeep Yadav, Deputy Director of Nepal Oil Corporation and coordinator of the depot construction project, 80 per cent of the work of constructing 'gabion' and 'retaining' wall at the construction site has been completed.

The construction gabion and retaining walls have been started to prevent damage caused by floods in the Rohini River at the construction site.

Yadav said that in the first phase of the project, land will be managed and in the second phase, a storage tank will be constructed.

He said that although the goal was to complete the work of retaining wall of the storage house by the end of June, the work was delayed due to continuous rains and floods in Rohini River.

At the construction site, 620 metres of gabion with a height of 6 metres and 150 metres of retaining wall with a height of 4.2 metres on the north side have been constructed.

Another gabion wall has been installed about 180 metres above the project site to protect the storage house from flooding.

According to the Corporation, the embankment was built after assessing the flood situation in the Rohini River in the last 50 years.

He said that they have a plan to start construction of 'compound' within a month after completion of the retaining wall.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs. 3 billion.

Three tanks with a capacity of 2100 kiloliters for diesel storage, two tanks with a capacity of 1600 kiloliters for petrol and three tanks with a capacity of 70 kiloliters for kerosene will be constructed.

Yadav said that the foundation of the storage house will be laid in November and the construction will be completed by 2026.