Out of 93 km, 6 km will be blacktopped and new contracts will be called for 15 km. Mugu district headquarters Gamgadhi will be without blacktopped roads.
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In the current fiscal year, a multi-year resource agreement was sought through the National Planning Commission to award new contracts for more than a dozen roads of national pride and strategic importance. But so far, only one highway has received resource agreement. No consent has been given to other roads. The Nagam-Gamgadhi road is the one that has received a multi-year resource agreement. The Ministry of Finance has stated that resource agreement has been given for its upgrading. It connects Mugu district headquarters Gamgadhi via Kalikot Jumla.
There is a total of 93 km from Nagam to Gamgadhi. Out of this, only 6 km of the road has been blacktopped. That too only in the Jumla section. Mugu does not yet have a blacktopped road. The district headquarters Gamgadhi is still without a blacktopped road. With the receipt of resource agreement in the current fiscal year, contracts have been called for the upgrading of 15 km of the road, said Sharan Mahatara, Chief of Road Division, Jumla.
‘This is also one of the 80 highways,’ said Mahatara, ‘We have now received source consent for the 15-km upgrade from Nagma to Debar Gaun, and accordingly, the contract has been called.’ It is being upgraded to two lanes. It has not been upgraded immediately due to neglect by the government body. The upgrade of the road has been started 13 years after the track was opened. According to the Road Division Jumla, the track was opened in 2063 and completed in 2069.
After the track was opened, the work of upgrading it could not proceed due to lack of budget. This time, a multi-year source consent has been given to it at the initiative of Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal and Physical Infrastructure and Transport Minister Madhav Prasad Chaulagain. ‘After the track was opened, there were repeated initiatives for upgrading, even though the file was raised from the district, it was not within the priorities of the Road Department and the Ministry,’ said an office source, ‘The road to the tourist spot Rara has not been blacklisted yet. Perhaps because of the brief tenure of the Minister of Physical Education of Jumla, this road finally became a priority.’
Nagma is the border of Kalikot and Jumla. A source agreement of Rs 910 million has been received for 15 km. The office has stated that its contract agreement will be signed by Jestha. ‘A 6-km road was blacklisted in the section around Gothijyula in Jumla a year ago,’ said Road Division Chief Mahatara, ‘Since the track of all sections has been opened, the upgrading work is being taken forward. It is estimated that Rs 4 billion will be spent on upgrading the entire road.’
The Nakche-Lagna road under this section connects China and Nepal. The tourist and religious site of Chhayanath, the site of the Khas civilization of Nepal, and the Sinja Valley, the site of the Khas civilization of Nepal, are also reached through this road. According to the Road Division Jumla, 28 km of the road falls in Mugu and 65 km in Jumla.
So far, only the Nagma-Gamgadhi road has received a multi-year resource agreement in this fiscal year, said Shyam Bahadur Khadka, Deputy Director General and Spokesperson of the Road Department. “This is a national highway, one road from Nagma goes to the Jumla headquarters, the other reaches Gamgadhi in Mugu, now the road connecting Nagma to Mugu is being upgraded,” he said. He said that the blacktop road has not been built in Mugu so far and preparations are underway to build it.
Joint Secretary and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance Tanka Prasad Pandey said that the ministry has ensured resources only for the upgrading of the Nagma-Gamgadhi road in the current fiscal year (under the Dailekh-Mahabulek-Jumla Khalanga road). ‘Many projects have come to the National Planning Commission for source consent,’ he said, ‘Due to the election code of conduct, the projects did not come to the finance ministry for consent in the meantime, there is no further progress on it now.’ He said that the Nagma-Gamgadhi road was approved because it came for source consent even before the election code of conduct came into effect.
Even though the Ministry of Finance has implemented the multi-year project source consent criteria-2082, it has not been implemented. This has affected projects of national pride and strategic importance. According to the criteria implemented on 13 Poush, the concerned bodies were supposed to submit the projects to the National Planning Commission for source consent by mid-Poush.
Although the multi-year criteria prepared by the Ministry of Finance asked for projects to be submitted by 30 Poush, the National Planning Commission has stated that the further process has not been able to move forward since the election code of conduct started on 4 Magh and the code of conduct will also apply to this. The Commission says that there has been no progress in this regard as the time has come for the new government to add multi-year criteria from the finance ministry.
