Although it has been 17 years since the construction of the national priority project Saljhandi-Sandhikhark-Dhorpatan road, 30% of the work has not been completed. The track of the road has been completed. However, where the track has been opened, road expansion, upgrading and black paper work is very slow. In 17 years, only 19 kilometers have been paved.

In 2065, the government launched a multi-year plan to build the Saljhandi-Dhorpatan road to connect Nepal's only game reserve, Dhorpatan to Baglung, in the Terai region. Due to the lack of budget and delay in the plan prepared to reach the hunting reserve and tourist destination Dhorpatan in a short distance from Terai through the hill district, the construction of the road has not been speeded up .

The construction of this road was started in 2065 to connect from Saljhandi in Rupandehi to Khursane in Palpa, Sandhikhark in Arghakhanchi, Purkotdah in Gulmi, Dhorpatan in Baglung via Arkhabang. The initial estimated cost of the project was 8 billion. Now the cost has increased to 11 billion. In 17 years, only 3.5 billion budget has been allocated.

The length of the road is 197 km. Out of it, 15 km is on Madhyapahari Lokmarg. The Saljhandi-Dhorpatan road project has been authorized to work only on the 182 km section . According to the project office, there are about 19 kilometers of black paper and even though tenders have been invited for many years for black paper in some sections of Arghakhanchi, Gulmi and Baglung, due to lack of budget, the work has not been done.  According to the

office, 5 km in Rupandehi, 20 in Palpa, 70 in Arghakhanchi, 40 in Gulmi and 50 km in Baglung are under the Saljhandi-Dhorpatan road. Among them, Saljhandi-Sandhikhark-Dhorpatan road planning office chief Gagal Bahadur Bhandari said that 5 km has been pitched in Kanchan river of Saljhandi and 14 km in Arghakhanchi. Out of the rest, work is currently being done in 4 different places to pitch 70 km, but due to lack of budget, no progress has been seen in the project.

'The biggest problem is lack of budget,' he said, 'Construction businessmen don't work on time because they don't manage to pay the budget  Changing the map of two bridges is another problem. The market area covered by the road project is Saljhandi. And he said that the road expansion in Sandhikhar market area of ​​Arghakhanchi has been delayed for some time due to the obstruction caused by the locals. Although the problem has been solved now, the construction is slow due to the lack of budget and the delay of the builders. 

road connects 4 districts of Lumbini and one district of Gandaki province with Terai . Among them, the road construction in Rupandehi of Lumbini has been completed. Now, a contract agreement has been signed for 22 km of black paper from Khusarne in Palpa to Patauti in Arghakhanchi . For 19 km from Purkotdah to Arkhabang in Gulmi, 7 km from Sirsni to Gangre in Gulmi, 26 km from Mate Bhandara in Arghakhanchi to Purkotdah Sirsni in Gulmi, the work is slow despite the multi-year contract. The duration of the contract is 3 years and all contracts have expired. 

The contract for the 22 km section from Burtibang to Dhorpatan in Baglung has been stalled for three and a half years . The work started in November 2078 and should be completed in April 2081, only 30 percent of the work has been done so far. Bhandari, the project chief, said that all the builders whose contracts have expired and the work has not reached 30 percent have been sent letters to cancel the contracts and start the process of awarding a new contract. "We are trying to break the contracts that have not progressed according to the agreement," he said, "if the budget is sufficient, we will increase the speed of work even if it is through a new tender." "The construction of the road was started with the aim of making it easier for the tourists who came to Lumbini to reach Dhorpatan and to develop Dhorpatan and Burtibang, which are considered remote in Baglung, as tourist areas," he said.

There is also a problem in the transportation of pregnant women of Dhorpatan, the Nepali Army and the reserve office due to the lack of road upgrading. He said that the work was delayed because the construction business did not work and the project office could not provide the budget.

While traveling on this road from Saljhandi to Dhorpatan, one can see the natural and picturesque variety of plains, hills and mountains. Road tracks have been constructed through most of the remote rural settlements of Arghakhanchi, Gulmi and Baglung. The locals also hoped that it would help in marketing the products from the identification of the lifestyle and cultural diversity of the rural settlements. However, due to the fact that the road construction is not as expected, the situation of people looking at the road and expressing their disappointment is increasing, said Deviram Aryal, Chairman of Malika Rural Municipality of Gulmi. "The most remote municipality of Gulmi is ours, since this road covered about 15 kilometers of the municipality, we had hoped for development accordingly," he said, "However, the track that has been open for 10 years has not been cleaned and upgraded, and now the disappointment has only increased."  He said that there is still hope and belief that tourism activities will increase after the construction of the road, because the beautiful and picturesque villages of the hills, the plains and the mountains can be seen from Arkhabang and Gangre on the road in Malika area. 

There is always lack of budget

Initially, the cost of this road is increasing with the delay in the construction of this road with a DPR of 8 billion . Senior Division Engineer Bhandari, head of planning, said that the cost of the plan has now increased to 11 billion. "At least 1 billion budget should have been allocated every year to complete the plan on time, but 40% of the required budget has not been received in any year," he said. 2 billion 3 crore 21 lakh rupees have been spent for the

project in the last 5 years . Before that, there is a figure of 1.2 billion spent. 
According to Christina Thapa, information officer of the road project, in 2077/078, 23 million rupees were allocated out of which 21 million 57 million rupees were spent. In 2078/079, 406.66 million was spent out of a budget allocation of 430 million. In 2079/080, 531.3 million rupees were spent out of the 53.17 million budget allocated, in 2080/081, 50.85 million rupees were spent out of the 50.87 million budget. In the current year, 45 crore 79 lakhs was allocated . Out of that, only 26 million 36 million was done by paying 16 million 64 million for the previous years.