The bridge, which was supposed to be completed in 30 months, remained incomplete for 7 years

The local people have been suffering after the construction company delayed the construction of the under-construction concrete bridge over the river Kaligandaki connecting Baglung and Parbat, sometimes using the excuse of payal foundation and sometimes the flow of the river.

The 100-meter long motorable bridge connecting Jaimini Municipality-1 from Jaiminidham to Devisthan in Falewas Municipality of Parbat has been stalled. The contractor company Rasuwa/Shri Geeta/Fewa Joint Construction Company has not been able to complete the work due to repeated deadlines.

There was a condition in the contract that the bridge should be constructed in 30 months. Locals are still skeptical about the completion of this work. Amar Adhikari, Engineer and Information Officer of Road Division Office, Baglung claimed that the deadline has been set by the end of next June.

One section of the three sections of this bridge is yet to be sloped. Officials have claimed that 82 percent of the physical side of the bridge and 86 percent of the financial side have been completed. On the east side of this bridge, there are forests and landslides. A person's house is on the west side. Bishnu Prasad Acharya, president of Jaimini-1, said that even after the bridge is built, crores of investment is needed to connect the road.

There is a compulsion to demolish the houses of the locals on the Jaimini side, destroy the fruit plants, destroy the vegetable crops and even demolish some sheds. Acharya said that there is no condition to connect the bridge to the road without the said damage. Apart from that, people's representatives said that there was no cooperation even before the bridge work started.

"We did not have any cooperation or advice during the survey of the bridge," Acharya said, "Now there is a situation where we have to demolish the houses of the residents of the ward, and that will be our responsibility." Even after the bridge is built, both sides of the road have to be built.

If this bridge was moved at least one hundred meters to the south, it would have been easily connected to the roads on both sides. The engineer officer has also accepted this. "This situation should be looked at at the time of making the plan and awarding the contract, didn't we see it," he said, "the cost will be higher, we will do the work of connecting the road."

He said that if there was cooperation with the locals before the bridge was built, the cost and hassle would have been reduced. Some works that are supposed to be completed in the current year are in progress. But local Hari Bahadur Chhetri said that there is a doubt that the river will rise this year. "They don't do it until winter, they start work when it starts raining, they get stuck when the flow of water increases," he said. Also, there is an alternative route to connect Pokhara from Phalewas in Parbat to Karkineta, Putlikhet in Syangja. Locals said that this road will shorten the current journey by almost 10 km. Vishnu Koirala, a representative of the construction industry, said that it took a long time to change the estimate for Payal Foundation.

"When the pillars of the bridge were placed, there was no payal foundation, we built it later, that's why it was delayed," he said. The contract for the construction of this bridge was signed at a cost of 13 crore 12 lakh 49 thousand 364 rupees.