It has been more than 8 years since the construction of the four-lane concrete bridge under construction on the Mahakali River began. Although the construction started with all the work of the project being completed in 3 years, it has not been completed yet due to the delay of the government agencies.

A four-lane concrete bridge has been constructed on the river. Only about 500 meters of the 8-kilometer access road remains to be blacktopped. After the guide bond of the pond constructed on both sides of the bridge was destroyed by a flood in 2081, questions have been raised about its design. Even though a new design of the guide bond has been made, work has not yet started.

The Department of Roads has unilaterally decided to terminate the contract while the guide bond construction process has been stalled for the past two years. While the contract-related dispute is pending in the Nepal Arbitration Council (NEPCA), the department decided on April 31 and published a notice to terminate the contract on Jestha 1.

In the area destroyed by the Mahakali floods last year, the Nepali Army was involved in the construction of a dam and the straightening of the riverbed. A budget of 290 million was allocated for that. The army was also given the responsibility of working when the monsoon season begins. The area was declared a disaster-prone area and given the responsibility to the army.

This time too, the Road Department is going to start work to reduce risk in the area without any delay. The department is going to use the department's own equipment to reduce risk in the area where the guide bond collapsed. Since the river flow is rapid in that area, a very deep ditch has formed. Now, the launching apron will be constructed by filling the same 9-meter ditch. Gravel will be collected and filled in to change the course of the river. ‘The work will be done to channelize the river and fill the ditch,’ said Thaneshwor Khatri, Director of the Road Improvement and Development Project Directorate of the Road Department. ‘The river flowing in the deep part near the guide bond will be brought to the middle, and a launching apron will also be constructed in that area.’

According to him, a launching apron of 31 meters long and 2 meters wide will be constructed using large stones to push the river flow to the middle. In addition, efforts will be made to push the river flow to the middle by increasing the length of the spur north of the guide bond. Director Khatri said that the target is to complete the work before the onset of the monsoon. According to him, the work has been started with a view to completing it by the end of Jestha. It is estimated that this will cost around Rs 20 million.

Locals say that the department has been temporarily clearing the bushes at the beginning of the rainy season, leaving aside work on design changes and variations throughout the year, just like last year. The water flow in the Mahakali has increased. With the flow of water increasing every day, it may not be possible to carry out regular work. Technicians say that the project work has been stalled until now due to the lack of timely new design and variation work.

Director Khatri says that since the contract process has been terminated, now the design change work will be done and a new contract process will be initiated for the remaining work. However, the dispute between the construction company and the department is pending in the Arbitration Council.

The bridge construction company Kumar Shrestha CFEC JV had filed an application with the department on April 24 last year to terminate the contract after the new design and variation work had not been done for a long time. The dispute then reached the Arbitration Council.

The construction company has accused the department of unilaterally terminating the contract without informing the department while the dispute was still under consideration. The company's engineer Kishor Pandey said that the contract was terminated unilaterally after not providing a working environment for two years and not paying for the work done. 'We did not get a working environment, we did not get paid for the work we did, we have been demanding it for two years,' said Engineer Pandey. 'The contract was terminated while the dispute was still in mediation, we were treated as if we had not worked.' The construction company has claimed to receive about 300 million rupees in payment. It has filed a case with the Arbitration Council, claiming that it has suffered a loss of 700 million rupees due to not being able to work for two years.

Director Khatri said that the construction company did not show interest even after requesting an extension of the deadline in Chaitra. He said that although he had talked to the construction company about immediately protecting the guide bond from boulders, they did not show any interest. ‘We have reached the decision to terminate the contract because the work has been pending for a long time and the construction company has also submitted a request,’ Khatri said, ‘We had to terminate the contract because the arbitration council also delayed its decision.’

A contract agreement for the project was signed in 2074 BS for Rs 3.27 billion to complete the work in 3 years. Along with the four-lane concrete bridge in Mahakali, an 8-kilometer, 6-lane road was to be constructed from Gaddachauki, the last point of the East-West Highway, to Malaria Nala in Dodhara Chandani Municipality-1.

The Mahakali River in the area where the bridge is being built is 2 kilometers wide. The length of the bridge is only 800 meters. The bridge is designed to be built in the middle of the river with a 6/600 meter wide and 2800 meter long eye-shaped pond on both sides. According to the initial design, the guide bond of the pond was to be made using boulder stones weighing more than 250 kilograms. The design was made after a study that a flow of up to 500,000 cusecs in the Mahakali could not carry stones weighing 250 kilograms.

But the design was changed after the construction company did not get large stones. According to which, the guide bond was built by filling gravel and concrete in the middle. The guide bond was constructed based on the verbal decision of the department without the design being approved and without any variation work.

After the guide bond was destroyed by the Mahakali flood in the same year, questions were raised again about the changed design. Director Khatri said that although three designs were submitted since then, all of them were rejected. Director Khatri said that after the design was rejected repeatedly, the department decided to work on risk mitigation on Magh 20. He said that since then, there has been a delay in risk mitigation due to elections and other reasons.