KALIKOT, Feb 22: The Karnali Highway has been known as a ‘death road’ for a long time. Although the government has spent millions of rupees to speed up the construction of various roads and bridges here, the bridges are still left incomplete.
On the Karnali Highway, some construction works have been completed and are not of good quality, while some works have not been completed due to negligence of the contractor companies. The Takulla Bridge, which was supposed to be built on the Kalikot-Jumla road as part of the Karnali Highway, has been stalled for 12 years due to the contractor's negligence.
Jagriti Tulchi Durga JV took over the construction of the bridge at a cost of Rs 30 million in the financial year 2012-13. The Road Division Office, Jumla, informed Republica that the contract was terminated in 2018 after the company did not work. Due to lack of contract again, the construction of the bridge remains stalled.
Delay in Sunkoshi Bridge construction
Under the same road section, over the Jaksi River of the Dailekh section, the bridge that was placed only with gradient has rusted. Siruwar Sunkoshi and Kavir JV, which took over the construction of the bridge, have taken the contract for the work. Now the bridge construction is stalled. Neither the related agencies have shown interest nor have the contractor companies completed the construction.
Pedestrians traveling along the highway have been suffering for the past 12 years. Stating that the iron rods supporting the bridge have rusted, the locals demand that the government immediately blacklist the contractors and revoke their licenses, questioning the silence shown by the concerned authorities.
They say that after the government trusts the construction plan, the contractors do not show interest in monitoring, quality measurement, public hearing according to the procedure, public audit, or public labor. The locals say that the contractors have been conning the government.
More than a dozen companies that have taken responsibility for the construction of concrete bridges in Dailekh, Kalikot and Jumla sections have fled. Some have charged more than the work on the basis of fake bills. Jeevan Devkota of Kalikot alleges that the construction of the bridge has been delayed due to the negligence of the technicians assigned to monitor the quality of the work by the road division office Surkhet, which is the body that regulates whether the contractor is working or not.
According to the Department of Roads, the contractors who were responsible for the construction of the bridges of Takulla Khola and Jaksi Khola under the Karnali Highway connecting Dailekh, Kalikot to Jumla are absconding. The road division office has time and again written to the companies that have received the contracts for the construction repeatedly but to no avail.
