Twelve cold storage facilities, which were started five years ago and were to be completed within three months, are in a state of disarray in various places in the Far West. Some have been built, some are under construction. Those that have been completed have not been put into operation. There is no decision on when the work on those under construction will be completed. Neither the government body nor the construction company is concerned about the construction of cold storage facilities. 

The cold storage building, which was started five years ago in Alital-5, Dadeldhura, is now in disarray. Weeds have grown around the building. The cold storage project, which began construction in Baisakh 2078, was contracted to be completed in Ashar of the same year. But even after five years, the construction of the building has not been completed. According to Dipayal, the Directorate of Agricultural Development, the building could not be constructed due to the negligence of the construction company LD Construction Basgadhi. The office has said that despite repeated extensions to the contract, no work has been done. 

Due to the lack of cold storage, local farmer Lal Bahadur Dala said that he had to transport potato seeds 124 kilometers away to Pahalmanpur in Kailali to store them. ‘The purpose of building a cold storage was to make it easier for local farmers. But now, we are forced to pay a high rent and take them out of the district,’ he said. This year alone, he has transported 55 quintals of potato seeds to the cold storage in Kailali. In Dadeldhura, which is considered a pocket area for vegetables, farmers are in trouble due to the lack of storage for not only potatoes but also other vegetables. ‘Without a cold storage, vegetables such as cauliflower, tomatoes and others rot, and the seeds have to be saved,’ said Dala. 

Cold storages are not only in Dadeldhura, but also in other places in the Sudurpaschim Province. Under the leadership of the then Chief Minister of the Province, Trilochan Bhatta, it was announced to build cold storages in 13 places in the Province through the annual budget for the fiscal year 2077/78. The implementation of which began in Baisakh 2078. The target was to complete most of the structures of this project within three months. However, in the five years since the construction began, six structures have been constructed, while the construction of the remaining seven centers is also pending. Out of the six constructed, five cold storage facilities, except for Martadi in Bajura, have not yet been put into operation. The initial cost of these projects was estimated at Rs 81.5 million, of which Rs 52.5 million has been spent by the provincial government. However, the operation has not been finalized.

According to the agreement signed with the construction company in Baisakh and Jestha 2078, the construction of the cold storage facilities should have been completed from Asad to Bhadau. The Attariya ‘cold storage facility’ in Godavari has been under construction since 2074. Along with 12 other cold storage facilities, the incomplete Attariya cold storage facility was also taken up through this project. However, the Directorate of Agriculture Development, Dipayal, has stated that the structures constructed are also unused due to the lack of skilled technicians and necessary equipment. So far, the construction of cold storage facilities in Dadeldhura's Alital, Darchula's Mahakali Municipality, Baitadi's Dasharathchand, Doti's Dipayal Siliguri and Jorayal, Kailali's Bhajani and Kanchanpur's Punarhash is pending. Of these, only about 25 percent of the work has been completed in Darchula's Mahakali Municipality, while no expenditure has been made so far in Doti's Dipayal Siliguri.

The work of these facilities, which was contracted with the construction company in Baisakh and Jestha 2078, was to be completed within a period of three months from Asar to Bhadra. According to the Directorate of Agricultural Development, Dipayal, among the completed constructions, a 350-ton capacity cold storage facility in Attariya, Godavari Municipality, Kailali is also included.

The construction of Badimalika in Bajura, Sanfebagar in Achham, Chure, Lamkichuha in Kailali and Dodhara-Chandani cold storage facilities in Kanchanpur has also been completed. But out of these, only the cold storage facility in Badimalika-8, Bajura, built at a cost of Rs 4.1 million, is operational. After completion of construction, the structures in Lamkichuha, Chure, Dodhara-Chandani and Badimalika have been handed over to the local level, while the buildings in Attariya and Sanfebagar have not been handed over. Due to problems such as lack of skilled technicians and necessary equipment, these structures have not been fully operational, said Koshraj Badu, an engineer at the directorate. 

Lokesh Bhatta, vice-chairman of the Sudurpaschim Province Committee of the Nepal Chamber of Commerce and central member of the Seed Traders Federation, says that most of the cold storage facilities built in the Far West were built based on political access rather than studying the needs and production sector. Bhatta, who has been producing seeds through the Himalayan Seed Company for about 20 years, said that there was not enough discussion with agricultural experts, farmers and the condition of local production while building the cold storage facilities. 'Many cold storage facilities were not built in the right place. "We could not promote crops according to the location," he said. "In some places, there is no production according to the capacity of the cold storage. Stores were built, but there was no plan to increase vegetable or fruit production accordingly."

Farmers have not been able to use the structures easily since they were built far from the production area. The structures built due to the lack of market links, operating procedures, and a clear management model have also not been put into operation. As Bhatta said, neither the local level nor the province has the operating procedures for cold storage. The Ministry of Land Management and Agricultural Cooperatives, Sudurpaschim, says that although the stores were built according to the public procurement regulations, the province has not formulated the operating procedures. An official from the ministry says that since the province will build and hand over to the local level, the operating procedures should be formulated by the local level.

The cold storages built in Chure in Kailali and Dodhara-Chandani in Kanchanpur have not been put into operation due to lack of three-phase electricity. Kali Prasad Bhatta, the information officer of Chure Rural Municipality, who is coordinating with the ministry for electricity supply, said. The Dodhara-Chandani agriculture branch says that the cold storage is closed due to weaknesses in the selection of the site. There was no electricity at that place when the store was built. During the feasibility study, the municipality had ensured the same place, saying that it would provide electricity until the cold storage was built. However, Krishnaraj Pant, the head of the municipality's agriculture branch, says that electricity has not reached the cold storage even four years after its construction.

'We have built the cold storage and the municipal hospital in the same place. The plan was to connect electricity after the construction of the cold storage. The store was built in a year, while the hospital took time to build, so there was a delay in the cold storage becoming operational,' Pant said. This store will be operational within the next fiscal year.

Although the store in Lamkichuha in Kailali has been operational for some time, it is currently closed due to a breakdown in the machine. The cold storage has been stalled because the technician to repair the machine has not been found in Nepal. The municipality's agriculture branch has stated that technicians will now be brought from India to repair the machines. The municipality has already handed over this store to the Kisan Multipurpose Agricultural Cooperative. Lamkichuha has also not prepared a procedure for its operation.

The Directorate of Agricultural Development has said that preparations have been started to ensure electricity supply after the lack of electricity was seen as the main problem in the operation of the cold storage. Plans have been made to expand the electricity line, provide necessary technical assistance and train manpower in the cold storages that have not been put into operation. 'We have planned to provide assistance in providing electricity and train technicians to run the store,' said Badu, an engineer at the directorate. 'We provide subsidies on electricity tariffs, and we are ensuring a budget for that.'

According to Nrip Bahadur Sunar, a member of the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission, the cold storage project has been left in a state of limbo because it was selected on the basis of accessibility without a detailed study. He said that while preparing the plan, attention was not paid to electricity, production equivalent to the capacity of the store, market access and road expansion. 'The province was new when this plan was made. At that time, the province was not able to establish a situation and such plans were implemented without a feasibility study,' said Sunar, 'now the province has become institutionalized. All plans to be built now are built only after a detailed study.'

The cold storage built at the Agricultural Produce and Wholesale Market in Attariya, Kailali has become dilapidated and has not been put into operation. The construction of this cold storage, which began in 2074, was built with the joint investment of the association, the province and the local government.

The province government alone spent 9.2 million rupees and installed the equipment. But it has not been operated to date. Due to being unused for a long time, there has been a problem with water leakage in the structure. The panel has rotted. The structure of the second floor has become weak.

Dilliraj Joshi, chairman of the Agricultural Produce Wholesale Market Management Committee, says that it is not possible to operate with the budget of 900,000 rupees allocated for this in the current fiscal year. 'Water leaks, the panel has rotted. The upper floor is not able to bear the load,' he said, 'This situation has arisen when an inexperienced construction company is given the responsibility.'

Joshi also said that the responsibility for the operation could not be taken due to many technical problems. So far, the committee has not received a letter of completion of the construction. He said that the responsibility for the operation was not taken due to many technical problems. This situation has arisen when the contract was given to an expert engineer and an inexperienced construction company during the construction. Currently, this cold storage is leaking water, the lab and panel have been eaten away by the worms, and the channel and panel of the second floor need to be replaced, Joshi said.

Former chairman of Attariya Agricultural Produce and Wholesale Market Nandalal Bhatta alleges that the construction business, the Directorate of Agricultural Development and the Ministry of Agriculture are mainly responsible for the abandonment of this store. The foundation stone of this store was laid in 2074 BS under Bhatta's leadership. 'We will build it ourselves within a month. The province gave the responsibility to the directorate when they asked us to give it to them. The company that the directorate awarded the contract to left the store abandoned for years. The directorate was not serious about this issue,' he said.

The panels and equipment that were connected had not been put into operation for years and there was no servicing, so it had to be repaired even before operation. 90 kV electricity is required to bring this store fully into operation. But only 75 kV electricity has been connected. Even though the directorate has put it on paper that it is complete, this store is still under construction. Even wood has not been laid on the ground floor of the store. 'The directorate is reluctant to let us test it. It says it is complete outside. We have not received a letter saying that it is fully completed,' said Bhatta. Agricultural engineer Kosraj Badu, who is currently studying the structure through a technical team, says that the repair and operation process will move forward only after the technical report comes. Since this structure, located at the main entrance to the Far West, has not been put into operation, farmers are losing both product storage and fair price.

Preparations to blacklist construction companies

LD Construction Basgadhi, Bardiya was given the responsibility of constructing cold storage in the rehabilitation of Alital and Kanchanpur in Kailali. Shree SH Construction Martadi, Bajura was given the responsibility of constructing cold storage in Sanfebagar, Achham and Martadi, Bajura.

Big B & Company Baitadi, Doti's Dipayal contract was given to Bhairav ​​Shakti Nirman Sewa Pvt. Ltd., Doti's Jorayal store contract was given to Bhumiraj Roshan Nirman Sewa Jorayal, Kailali's Bhajani store contract was given to G & J Nirman Sewa Bardagoria, the store in Chure in the same district was given to Chandravikas Yagyalakshmi Nirman Sewa, and the Godavari contract was given to Ashu Nirman Sewa Nawadurga, Dadeldhura. Engineer Badu of the Agricultural Development Directorate, Doti, under the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives of the Far West, claims that the project has been stalled due to the negligence of the contractor company and that the work has been delayed despite repeated letters.

‘The condition of the completed construction is also not satisfactory. We have written letters to the construction companies responsible for the seven projects 18-19 times. They say they will work, but in practice there has been no progress,’ he said.

The process of blacklisting contractor companies that do not complete the cold storage under construction on time and are negligent has also been taken forward. The process of blacklisting was taken forward earlier too. However, after the 14th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulations, their deadline has been extended, says Engineer Badu. 

The contractor company that was entrusted with the construction says that it has not been able to complete the work due to the impact of the Corona pandemic and price hike. Smriti Sundar Sharma, the owner of LD Construction, who was given the responsibility of building cold storage facilities in Dadeldhura's Alital and Kanchanpur, where his company was unable to recover after the coronavirus pandemic, said this. However, he claims that he will complete both the cold storage facilities he took over by the upcoming Ashar.