The incomplete project that the general public has suffered the most and for the longest time is the bridge over the Kamala River, which borders Siraha and Dhanusha.
What you should know
The trend of contractors not completing projects on time has become a common occurrence in the country. What is even more surprising is that during elections, the parties and their leaders who solicit votes from voters in the name of these same projects also ignore them after winning the elections. There are some such projects in Siraha and Saptari, which have become nothing more than a 'weapon' for political parties to attract votes.
The most long-suffering and unfinished project that the general public has been suffering from is the Kamala River Bridge on the border of Siraha and Dhanusha. It has been 15 years since the construction of this bridge along the Postal Highway, which is considered the lifeline of Madhesh, began.
Pappu-Lumbini Builders JV Kathmandu was awarded the contract for the construction of the 469.2-meter-long Kamala Bridge on 24 Jestha 2068 for Rs 249 million including VAT. The owner of Pappu Construction is Hari Narayan Rauniyar, who is also a member of the House of Representatives from JSP Nepal. The current owner of this construction is his son Sumit Rauniyar, while Bishnu Prasad Sharma, the owner of Lumbini Builders.
According to the agreement, the bridge should have been constructed within 3 years and 6 months, i.e. 30 Mangsir 2071. However, the construction period was extended twice to 30 Mangsir 2075. However, the contractor did not construct the bridge. After the locals formed a struggle committee and started a relay hunger strike, the Postal Highway Directorate, Planning Office, Janakpur, removed the main partner Pappu on 1 Asoj 2076 and awarded the contract to Lumbini Builders.
Lumbini had completed the final stage of the bridge construction, except for the embankment on the river, control and access roads, when the normal flood on 17 Asaj 2078 BS failed to withstand the second pillar on the Siraha side and the third pillar on 3 Kartik 2078 BS on the Dhanusha side. However, even after more than four years, the condition of the bridge is the same.
The eighth extension of the deadline for the reconstruction of the bridge has already passed last Asaj. After the directorate prepared to withdraw the contract, the contractor has recently started work again. Krishna Kumar Mahato, head of the Postal Road Directorate, Planning Office, Janakpur, said that although the contractor started work recently, the deadline has not been extended yet.
With the attitude of continuing work for a few days and then stopping again, it is not clear when the bridge will be completed. However, the contractor company has already taken Rs 231.9 million in payment. The issue of the design of this bridge being wrong and extreme irregularities has also been raised. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority is conducting an on-site inspection and investigating this matter.
Due to the delay in the construction of this bridge in Kamala, the residents of this area have been suffering greatly for decades. In the absence of a bridge here, the locals who used to cross the river by boat during the rainy season used to travel through a temporary bamboo bridge during the dry season. Recently, a temporary diversion has been made by placing a humpipe in the river.
However, Indrajit Yadav, Ward Chairman of Siraha Municipality-6, says that this will not be sustainable. ‘After the construction of the diversion, it has become easier to travel now, but this is only for the time when the river floods,’ Yadav said. ‘If the flood comes, it will easily wash it away.’
The suffering suffered by the locals is indescribable. Janakpur is only 31 kilometers away from this bridge. However, due to the lack of a bridge, the residents here are forced to travel for about 90 kilometers via Choharwa, Mirchaiya, Dhalkebar and travel for half an hour to reach Janakpur, which is half an hour away.
There is a competition among leaders of various parties to inspect the bridge in Kamala. The foundation stone of this bridge, which was laid by the then Minister for Physical Planning and Planning Hridayesh Tripathi and the then Minister for Finance Barshaman Pun in 2068, has been inspected by various prime ministers and ministers more than a dozen times so far. Of these, KP Sharma Oli twice, Pushpa Kamal Dahal twice and Sher Bahadur Deuba once, three of the then prime ministers have come here five times.
Oli came here for the first time on 19 Magh 2075, the second time on 26 Chaitra 2081, Dahal came here for the first time on 12 Falgun 2080, the second time on 17 Falgun 2081 and Deuba on 2 Shrawan 2076.
The list of ministers who will come here is long. On 4 Ashad 2078, the then Tourism Minister Umashankar Aragaria came here, and on 15 Falgun 2079, the then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure Narayan Kaji Shrestha, on 1 Shrawan 2080, the then Minister for Physical Infrastructure Prakash Jwala, on 9 Chaitra 2080, the then Minister for Physical Infrastructure Raghubir Mahaseth, on 9 Jestha 2082, the then Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, on 5 Mangsir 2082, the then Minister for Physical Infrastructure Kulman Ghising and the Minister for Youth and Sports Bablu Gupta came here.
In addition, former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, JSP Nepal Chairman Upendra Yadav, Janmat Party Chairman Dr. CK Raut, former Chief Minister of Madhesh Province Satish Kumar Singh, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives Subash Chandra Nembang, the then Speaker of the National Assembly Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, and others also visited and inspected the bridge.
The assurance given by all these leaders, from former ministers to former Prime Ministers, is the same: this bridge will be built soon. However, their assurances have been limited to speeches. The districts that have suffered the most due to the lack of a bridge in Kamala are Saptari, Siraha and Dhanusha. In the upcoming House of Representatives elections, there are 24 candidates from these three districts alone, including the chairmen of influential parties in the region, former ministers and chief ministers of the provinces.
In Saptari, there are 7 candidates, including JSP Nepal chair and former Deputy Prime Minister Upendra in Constituency No. 3, Janamat Party chair CK Raut in Saptari 2, former Chief Minister Satish Kumar from Swabhiman Party, former minister Umesh Yadav from JSP Nepal, former minister Anish Ansari from Rastriya Mukti Party, and former minister Tejulal Chaudhary from Congress in Saptari 4 and former minister of state Rubi Kumari Karna from NCP.
In Siraha, 9 former ministers are in the fray in constituency number 4, including JSP Nepal Vice President Rajkishore Yadav, Janmat Party's Birendra Mahato, CPN-UML's Dharmanath Sah, CPN-UML's Ajay Shankar Nayak, Bahujan Samaj Party's Bishvendra Paswan, UML's Leelanath Shrestha, CPN-UML's Bishvendra Sah, CPN-UML's Ramchandra Yadav, and Rashtriya Samaj Party's Bablu Gupta.
In Dhanusha, Congress leader Bimalendra Nidhi, UML's Julie Mahaseth, UML's Raghubir Mahaseth, Congress's Mahendra Yadav, CPN-UML's Ramchandra Jha, CPN-UML's Umashankar Aragaria, CPN-UML's Matrika Prasad Yadav, and JSP Nepal's Deepak Karki have become candidates.
In previous elections, they had taken the voters' vote by promising to take the initiative to build the Kamala Bridge, and have made the Kamala Bridge an agenda item again in this election. Leelanath Shrestha, who won the elections from Siraha 3 twice in 2074 and 2079 BS and became a minister and is a candidate again this time, is promising to build the Kamala Bridge to the voters this time too. ‘We have tried for this bridge when we were in government in the past, but it did not gain momentum due to the change of government,’ said Shrestha. ‘After winning this time, I will make it a top priority.’
On the other hand, Umashankar Aragaria, who was elected from Dhanusha 2 in 2074 BS from JSP Nepal and became a candidate from UML in this election, raised the issue of this bridge prominently and said that his first task after winning would be to build the Kamala Bridge.
However, the locals, who have been deceived and repeatedly agitated by local leaders, from ministers to the country’s Prime Minister, have now stopped believing in such promises of leaders. ‘Now I have lost faith in leaders, I have grown old listening to such things from leaders,’ said 70-year-old Asheshwar Yadav of Siraha Municipality-5, who was found on the Kamala River. ‘Leaders think we don’t understand anything.’
Ram Rizhan Yadav of Siraha, one of the leaders fighting for this bridge, claims that various political parties and their leaders have been considering the Kamala Bridge as a weapon to garner votes. ‘If the leaders had wanted, this bridge could have been built already,’ he says, ‘But, it seems that they are forever trying to steal the votes of the people here in the name of leaving the bridge incomplete, this is dishonest.’
Saying that there is no solution to reconstructing the bridge, he says that a new bridge should be built in Kamala. ‘There is a flaw in the design of the bridge, the design from a decade and a half ago does not work anymore,’ said Yadav. ‘Therefore, if someone talks about reconstructing the bridge again, it is a lie. There is no alternative to building a bridge with a new design here.’
