Prime Minister KP Oli speaks at the foundation-laying function of the Nagdhdunga tunnel road on October 21.

Prime Minister KP Oli, speaking at the foundation on October 21, 2019, said: "This is a happy occasion; we have introduced tunnel technology in road and highway construction. In the energy sector, for electricity generation and for drinking water and irrigation, we had constructed canals but had not used this kind of technology in road and highway construction. Today, with new technology, we have taken a new leap forward…"

South Asia Check has examined the claims of the prime minister. 
Swiss geologist Toni Hagen, in his book "Building Bridges to the Third World: Memories of Nepal 1950–1992," mentioned a tunnel road in Nepal. On page 24 of the book, he wrote: "An auto of Maharaja’s was waiting for us in Amlekhganj to take us on a dirt road up into the Churia Range and through a hundred-meter-long tunnel to the northern side of the broad dune valley." Hagen had visited Nepal in 1950, during the Rana regime. Nowadays, the Churiya Tunnel is not in operation. The Province 3 government is working to preserve it as a historical site. 
However, a 340-meter-long tunnel road in Bhulbhule, Lamjung district, is already in use. 
Therefore, the under-construction Nagdhunga-Sisnekhola Tunnel Road is not the country’s first. The prime minister’s statement is misleading.

Nagdhunga tunnel road will be Nepal’s third, Churia tunnel road is first, and Bhulbhule’s second.