On Ashad 30, 2077, Contech Pvt. Ltd. Kathmandu signed an agreement with the Infrastructure Development Office for Rs. 262.815 crore to complete the road blacktop and slope within 2 years.
What you should know
The blacktop of the Udipur-Ritthebagar-Dordi road, which connects Dordi rural municipality center to Nauthar Shera in Lamjung, has finally been completed.
The construction of the road, which has been repeatedly extended, has taken about 5 and a half years. The deadline for this has been extended for the sixth time.
The Infrastructure Development Office, Lamjung, has stated that 7.1 kilometers of the road from Udipur, Besisahar Municipality-1 to Nauthar Shera under the Dumre-Besisahar Road have been blacktopped. Most of the section of the road is in the Ramchowk Valley area of Besisahar Municipality-11.
The foundation stone of this road, whose track was opened in 2066/067, was laid by the then Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung on Mangsir 23, 2077, in accordance with the Gandaki Province Government's 'One Municipality, One Road' concept.
On Asad 30, 2077, Contec Pvt. Ltd. Kathmandu had signed an agreement with the Infrastructure Development Office for Rs 262.815 crore to complete the road blacktopping and slope within 2 years. According to the agreement, the work was to be completed by Asad 2, 2079. However, the deadline was extended repeatedly after the work was not completed on the specified date.
The deadline was first extended until Poush 24, 2079. The deadline was extended for the second time to 29 Asar 2080, the third time to 28 Mangsir 2080, the fourth time to 31 Baisakh 2081 and the fifth time to 28 Mangsir 2081. Most recently, the deadline was extended for the sixth time until mid-2082 Mangsir as per the fourteenth amendment to the Public Procurement Act. The office has stated that the blacktop work of the road was completed around this deadline.
According to Naresh Raj Joshi, engineer of the Infrastructure Development Office, 1 kilometer of the total 7.121 kilometers has been sloped. All the remaining sections have been blacktopped. ‘The blacktop work was completed only last Wednesday,’ he said, ‘Now only some minor work related to road safety remains.’
According to Senior Division Engineer Shobiat Khadka, Chief of the Infrastructure Development Office, although the work has been physically completed, the payment process is still pending. ‘Some payments to the construction entrepreneurs are still pending,’ he said, ‘The process of financial management cannot be moved forward with the election code of conduct. After the code of conduct is lifted, the necessary payment procedures and additional management will have to be carried out.'
According to the office, after the initial agreement, the construction company has added a variation order worth Rs 19.941 million. Till last year, Rs 225.9 million has been paid.
Engineer Joshi said that although Rs 30 million was allocated in the current fiscal year, only Rs 1.5 million was received and that amount has been paid to the construction businessmen. 'Even the remaining amount of the allocated budget is not enough. Additional budget management is required for this,' he said.
According to Ward Chairman of Besisahar Municipality-11, Shiva Prasad Joshi, the locals were forced to endure dust and mud for a long time due to the delay in road construction. 'Citizens are happy that the road has been blacktopped up to their doorsteps,' he said.
Dordi Rural Municipality Chairman Yubaraj Adhikari said that despite the delay in the construction work, the completion of the road blacktopped is positive. "There were repeated problems with construction contractors being out of touch when the budget was available, and with the government not receiving money to proceed with the work," he said. "All these reasons led to a significant delay in road construction."
