Rautahat, July 5 -- Decades after the construction of the East-West Highway, widely seen as the country's main economic and transport corridor, large stretches of the road remain legally registered in the names of private individuals.

Despite carrying hundreds of vehicles and thousands of passengers daily, sections of the highway, also called Mahendra Highway, passing through Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat and Bara in Madhesh Province have not been formally transferred to government ownership.

Officials say this mismatch between physical infrastructure and legal records reflects long-standing administrative lapses. Stakeholder agencies, including the Road Division, have written to the Department of Survey, urging that the Dhanus...