The Baglung Industrial Village plan, announced seven years ago, has not yet been implemented due to a lack of roads, electricity, and security.
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Baglung Municipality prepared 86 ropanis of land in Kalakhola, Ward 13, seven years ago with the intention of building an industrial village. The plan is stalled after it failed to make road, electrification and security arrangements.
More than a third of the land purchased has been eroded by the Kaligandaki River. Work has not yet begun on the remaining land. Bidari Construction, the company building the Kaligandaki Corridor, has operated a crusher here.
The company, which has not been able to work even a year after the deadline for building the road, is operating the crusher.
The municipality has forgotten its own important plan. Even though the people's representatives before 2079 brought an ambitious plan to build an industrial village, time has passed without implementing it. Although a celebration was held on Wednesday to mark the fourth anniversary of the second term of the people's representatives, there was no discussion about the industrial village. Locals complain that no one has worked despite the catchy slogan of "industrial village".
Seven years ago, the Gandaki Provincial Government had planned to implement the decision to build one industrial village in each municipality. Accordingly, Rs 2 million had been invested in land consolidation and other works. Now, the land is being eroded by the river. The municipality has not brought a conservation plan.
Since then, industries and businesses have been operating in the market due to lack of organized space. The market area has become unorganized due to motor garages, grill industries, furniture industries, etc. The haphazard dumping of construction materials is also posing a risk to pedestrians.
The work of the industrial village has been stalled because the plan was made without procedures five years ago. Two years ago, the Ministry of Industry and the technical team of the municipality had also revised the DPR. The DPR has also been stalled. Earlier, the then municipal executive had directly awarded two contracts without passing the procedure and after the work on those contracts was not completed, the process of canceling them was initiated on the advice of the ministry.
Some work was stopped due to procedural errors, and now the work will be taken forward again after a technical study, said Mayor Basanta Kumar Shrestha. ‘In the previous estimate, it was decided to build houses and give them away for rent, but that is not necessary. Since the infrastructure of the same nature is being built by the industry that opens, we are going to work in such a way that the municipality will provide only services such as roads, drinking water, electricity, etc.,’ he said. ‘The relevant industry will build its own necessary houses and other infrastructure.’
He said that the municipality will give priority to the security of the industry. But he said that since there is no mention of that in the policy and program, the locals are not able to trust it. ‘If we want to do the work, it has to be in the policy, it has to be in the plan,’ said local Ramkrishna Sharma, ‘We only got assurances, there was no basis to believe that the work would be done.’
A municipality official said that the ministry has demanded at least Rs 10 million for the work of protecting the land from the river by building a concrete wall at least 100 meters long and up to 10 meters high due to erosion. He said that the work could not be carried out due to lack of that budget.
The municipality has not been able to build the embankment with its own money. After the river exploitation increased in the Sahasradhara of Parbat to the east, the river flow changed and a section of the industrial village was eroded.
Currently, the industries, garages, etc. that have opened in Baglung Bazaar in an unorganized manner have suffered from environmental pollution and electrification. Those industries that have opened near the hotel have also affected tourists. ‘There is a hotel nearby, and after the furniture industry opens, tourists cannot stay there due to the dust and noise,’ said Ward 4 Chairman Kumar Bikram Chhetri, ‘If such industries can be moved to the industrial village, the city will become clean and peaceful.’ The municipality had set a goal of moving at least 50 industries that have an impact on the market to the industrial village.’
Tarakhola Rural Municipality has also purchased 100 ropanis of land and kept it for 7 years. Not a single industry has opened. Rural Municipality Chairman Dhan Bahadur BK said that the lack of electrification and poor roads have prevented it from running the industrial village. ‘If the roads are up to standard, we can operate many industries,’ said BK, ‘We will move medium-sized industries there rather than small industries operating in the villages.’ The rural municipality had also set up a fence for the industrial village near the forest near Bhuskat in Ward 1.
