Future of tunneling & How explosives are shaping in Nepal
Nepal is a developing country, which needs to accelerate in developing its crucial infrastructures for the economic prosperity of
the people living. Tunneling in Nepal started in 1917 with the first tunneling project the Churia Tunnel which is a highway tunnel of 500 meters long that facilitate trade between Kathmandu and Raxaul. The use of underground space is not new and people in this country have used underground space for many years, with early miners digging small tunnels and caves to get minerals like copper, iron, lead, cobalt, nickel, and different colored stones. In recent past the tunneling activities have increased considerably in the country with the development of many medium scale hydropower projects.
Tunnels and underground caverns in Nepal are primarily required in four key areas:
- Water conveyance
- Transportation
- Mining, and
- Food storage facilities.
Modern and institutionalized tunneling in Nepal began with 
the excavation of tunnels and an underground powerhouse for the Tinau Hydroelectric Project near Butwal in 1970, marking the beginning of approximately 75 kilometers of tunnel construction. Numerous hydropower development projects have been implemented till date, along with the country’s first road tunnel construction project, the Nagdhunga Tunnel which is now nearing completion. In Nepal, major rivers originate in the Himalayas and hold substantial potential for hydropower generation. Moreover, the future of tunneling in Nepal looks promising with several ongoing and planned projects mostly related with transportation and Hydropower. These projects are indicating the growth in Nepal’s infrastructure development.
In the present scenario the explosives continue to play a vital role in tunneling worldwide, especially in challenging geographical conditions. The use of explosive in Nepal initially started for basic operations such as mining, road construction etc, in the mid 20’s. For tunnel excavation, Nepal mostly uses the drill-and-blast technique. This involves drilling holes into rock faces and detonating explosives to fragment the rock. While this method was effective, this method can lead to challenges such as over breaking of rocks especially in jointed or fractured rock formations that leads to increasing the cost as well as poses safety risk.
As of 2025, Nepal employs various types of explosives in it’s tunneling projects, particularly for hydropower and infrastructure development. The selection of explosives materials such as detonators, initiating system, packed explosives and others is influenced by geological conditions, project scale, and availability. Challenges are still yet to be overcome in complex geological structures in Nepal. To mitigate this limitation of traditional method, Nepal is gradually adopting Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) for tunnel excavation. TBM can be the most efficient method of tunneling as Nepal has a critical structure, TBM can help in completion of projects in less period with safety and less environment impact.
