Dust in the lower regions, dark by day

Dust piled up to 2 feet on the road. The risk of an accident is the same when traffic is obstructed by flying dust that covers the road. Even so, vehicles are forced to drive with their headlights on and honking horns during the day.

Jotendramohan Chauhan, a car driver who was going from Kapilvastu to Kathmandu, said that he has to honk his horn and turn on emergency lights to let other drivers know that he is coming. Most of the places on this section of the highway do not even have traffic signals. Two-wheelers get lost in the dust, while the rider gets sore throat and cough due to the dust.

Puran Giri, a hotelier of Downne, expressed his grief that the hotels and restaurants around the road have stopped operating due to the dust blown by the vehicles. When travel was easy, Daunne section used to be the main destination for many people to eat and have lunch. "For about 5 years, we have been facing the problem of dust," he said, "They say that the driver should not stop the vehicle in this section as long as possible." Due to the dust and traffic jams, the driver and the passengers are under the impression that they would have been able to cut their cars.'

Downey has more than 60 hotels and restaurants. Most of the hotels are covered with tripal to avoid dust. 12 thousand vehicles pass through this section daily. Traffic jams occur for hours every day when cargo vehicles get stuck in potholes without being seen due to dust. Even the traffic police do not want to be on the highway due to excessive dust.

The contractor of China State Construction Engineering Corporation Company, who got the road expansion contract, has not done so because of the need to add water regularly so that the dust does not fly. 7 km from Downe Bazar towards Bardghat and 7 km towards East Dumkiwas, this highway is impassable. The 22 km stretch from Downe to East Chormara has been disrupted due to the destruction of the road. It takes about 4 hours to cross this section. Passengers traveling on this section of the road, which is considered to be the busiest in the country, are suffering. A total of 113 km of road section has been expanded.

Chudaraj Dhakal, head of the project of the Directorate of Projects (ADB), claims that water is poured three times a day in the lower section. "There is a lot of problem due to dust in this section, 112 curves are being constructed in the 14 km section," he said, "If the curve could have been built at the rate of 8/10 before, this problem would not have occurred. Yes.''He said that the contractor should pay attention to the people who pour water on the dusty road in the lower section and the traffic police to facilitate the traffic. "There is a big problem in this section, even if we water it, the sun will dry it in an hour, for that we have asked to increase the time of watering," he said, "It is equally difficult to work in this section where the traffic is high."

When the construction progress of this road section was slow, a notice was issued in the first week of October 2079 to break the contract. But the contractor backed away from breaking the project contract after promising to complete the work soon. Although there is no proper progress in the work, the deadline has been extended for the second time till June 2081. But the project says that the physical progress of the project is 50 percent as there are only 3 months left for the extended deadline. While the rest of the work is not likely to be completed within 3 months.

The contract for the upgrading of this road section has been signed with the loan support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). According to the contract that started on December 5, 2075, the work should have been completed by July 22, 2079. Even after 5 years of construction, the construction progress is not satisfactory. According to the contract, the contract amount is 16 billion 99 crore 52 lakh 96 thousand rupees. "There is a deadline of June 2081, the work is not expected to be completed within that period,"

Dhakal said, 'There is confusion about how to extend the deadline, let's not extend the deadline, the condition of the road is like this, there is no significant progress in the extension work, what to do about it is being discussed, a decision has not been made.'' He said that since it is high and it takes time to break the current contract and go for a new contract, they are putting pressure on the current contractor to finish the work as soon as possible.