MAHENDRANAGAR: A contract was signed four years ago to blacktop the Dokebazar-Belauri, Belauri-Daiji postal road section in the southern part of the Kanchanpur district, which has easy access to Dhangadhi in Kailali and Mahendranagar in Kanchanpur.
The then Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development Ramesh Lekhak laid the foundation stone of the 62 km long road at Dokebazar in Kanchanpur. The contractors also expressed their commitment to complete the postal road in three packages to be completed within 30 months, but four years passed and the progress is only 70 percent in physical progress. The contractor has so far black-topped only 17 km.
Engineer Padam Bahadur Madai, information officer at the Postal Highway Planning Office, Kailali, said that the main culprit was the contractor who failed to complete the work on time. “Even though the work was affected by the coronavirus for some time, the government extended the deadline by six months,” said Engineer Madai.
Sharma-Rajendra JV was given the responsibility of constructing 20 kilometers of postal road from Dokebazar to Balauri and 22 kilometers from Beldandi to Daiji. As part of the final package (from Beldandi to Daiji) falls on Shuklaphanta National Park, there has been some delay in the tree felling process.
Similarly, Baba-Hans Siddhisai JV has been entrusted with the construction of 20 km from Belauri to Beldandi, but the pace of construction is not satisfactory. The project costing more than Rs 1.9 billion was not completed on time and the people of the southern region have to suffer.
Similarly, the work of the four-lane bridge under construction on the Mahakali River, which is Nepal’s biggest investment, has been affected due to lack of large stones. However, the construction of the six-lane access road to Gaddachauki along with the bridge has almost completed.
It is planned to build 5,400 meters of dam on both sides of the bridge. The contract agreement states that a dam of 2,700 lengths should be built on both sides of the river. Engineer from Kumar Shrestha Construction Company, Kishore Raj Pandey said that 141,000 cubic meters of stone is required for the dam. “We need 70 percent of the stones to weigh more than 260 kilograms,” he said.
Some time ago, the Mahakali Bridge Planning Office, in coordination with the local level and the administration, started bringing large stones from the base of the Chure in the north of Mahendranagar, but it was stopped due to the protest of local consumers. However, the Mahakali Bridge Planning Office is taking initiative at the Center for the decision of the Council of Ministers to provide the stone.
While small and medium development works are being carried out in Kanchanpur with the budget of the state government and local government, the big works have been delayed due to various reasons. The pace of work of the third phase of the Mahakali Irrigation Project, which was recently included in the project of national pride, is also slow. The work of the main canal of the third phase of irrigation, which was started with the aim of irrigating 33,000 hectares of land in Kanchanpur and Kailali, has been affected by public land compensation and community forest felling.
Rana Bahadur Bam, director of the third phase of the Mahakali Irrigation Project, said that even though a contract was awarded for the construction of 15 km main canal in three packages three years ago, the issue could not be resolved due to lack of decision from the Ministry of Forests and the Council of Ministers.
“As the issue of land and trees has not been resolved, the canal work has not started yet except for other structures,” said Director Bam. Under the project, which started more than a decade ago, only 13 kilometers of main canal from the Bhim Dutta Municipality-9 Brahmadev area of Kanchanpur has been constructed.
