They have not been able to turn on the electricity even after 6 months of wiring because the NEA failed to provide the transformer on time.
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It has been more than six months since poles were buried and wires were pulled in the settlements of Darma Rural Municipality-1 to 6 under the district complete electrification program. All the residents of the ward wired their homes hoping to be able to light the lights last Dashain.
The construction company and the Electricity Authority have not been able to install transformers on time, so the dream of the locals to turn on the lights has not been fulfilled yet.
Similarly, the construction company has been burying poles and laying wires in settlements including Tatke, Jimali, Wadagaun, and Swikot in 6 wards of Kumakh Rural Municipality for a long time under the complete electrification program. Under the district complete electrification program, Maa Shakti Tristal JV Dolakha completed the work of burying poles and laying wires in various settlements of eight local levels including Sharda, Bagchaur Municipality, Tribeni, Kumakh, Kapurkot, Chhatreswari, Siddhakumakh, and Darma Rural Municipality six months ago, but the locals have not been able to turn on the lights yet. As the Authority has not been able to provide transformers on time, they have not been able to turn on the lights even after 6 months of laying the wires.
The government had allocated Rs 80 million since 2080 to bury poles and pull wires, in addition to purchasing construction materials, saying that the work would be completed in 18 months. The contract for complete electrification was awarded to Maa Shakti Tristal JV. After the contract period expired, the NEA has extended the deadline for another 6 months. The NEA has not yet been able to provide transformers. Due to this, 19,789 families in eight municipalities, except Kalimati Rural Municipality and Bangad Kupinde Municipality, are still forced to live in darkness.
Despite repeated requests from locals and people's representatives of the municipalities, including the district and province, to submit memorandums to the association and hold sit-ins at the NEA office, Darma Rural Municipality Chairman Neem Bahadur KC said that the construction company has not shown much interest in lighting the lights so far. He said that although the total number of households in the municipality is 4,081, the construction company has buried poles and pulled wires, but more than 2,000 families have been forced to live in darkness as the transformer has not been connected yet. ‘We have been requesting since last year. After requesting, the construction company buried poles and pulled wires in the abandoned places.’ Now, they are making various excuses and avoiding it,’ he said, ‘Due to the negligence of the construction company and the concerned bodies, more than half of the households in the municipality have been relying on solar panels.’
Kumakh Rural Municipality Chairman Man Bahadur Budhathoki said that despite pressure to work quickly in various ways, the construction materials procurement division of the NEA could not turn on the lights last year because the transformer could not be purchased. The construction of the He informed that the construction company was extremely negligent in the beginning and that the poles are still to be installed in some places, and in some places they are stuck. Kapurkot Rural Municipality Chairman Durga Bahadur Pun said that only 20 percent of the municipality's houses are yet to be supplied with electricity, so the work of lighting electricity in some places is currently underway.
Hari Bahadur Kathayat, Acting Chief Administrative Officer of Bagchaur Municipality, said that although the construction company has worked, it has only been clearing bushes. He informed that the construction company has still to install poles in some wards of the municipality. 'After the poles fell, the locals were happy to do the wiring in the branch where they could light the lights.' Since the work could not be completed, the desire of the locals to be able to light the lights has not been fulfilled,' he said.
Although the complete electrification program in the district started in 2080, the lights could not be turned on in the places where the poles were buried and the wires were pulled because the poles, wires and transformers could not be purchased and provided as required last year, said Dinesh Poudel, head of the Salyan Electricity Authority.
He informed that the construction company has completed more than 70 percent of the work in eight municipalities in the district. 'Out of the 8,200 poles required in eight local levels across the district, only 7,100 have been buried so far. 1,100 has not been reached. Due to the complications in the procurement process of construction materials at the places where the poles were buried and the wires were pulled, the lights could not be turned on because there was no transformer,' he said. He said that since the procurement process has been taken forward, electricity will be available in all houses in the district by the end of Kartik.
