With the lack of sufficient petroleum products and bitumen in the market, construction companies are halting work such as blacktop, road cutting, retaining walls, and other construction projects and are instead constructing small walls.
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The blacktop work on the Madan Bhandari Highway has been stalled for two months. Construction companies have stopped working with large equipment, citing the shortage of petroleum products and bitumen and the increase in prices due to the ongoing war in West Asia.
The Madichaur in Rolpa to Bagchaur in Salyan section of the highway is in preparation for blacktop. After the market stopped receiving sufficient quantities of petroleum products and bitumen, the construction company is putting up small walls by stopping blacktop, road cutting, retaining walls, and other works.
All work has been completed on the 52-kilometer road from Madichaur in Rolpa to Bagchaur in Salyan, from Madichaur to Madi Rural Municipality-2 in 25 kilometers. The construction company had prepared to blacktop 10 kilometers of the road in Chaitra, Baisakh, and Jestha this year. Similarly, preparations were made to carry out additional work including cutting 13 kilometers from Pipaldanda, Madi Rural Municipality-2, Rolpa to Patihalna, Bagchaur Municipality, Salyan.
But due to the shortage of petroleum products and bitumen, only 40 percent of the work has been completed so far, said Engineer Badal. He informed that the construction company is currently carrying out normal work due to the lack of oil and bitumen as required. ‘Initially, the construction company did a good job. The construction company could not work after the price increase of petroleum products and bitumen created a situation where they could not be obtained on time,’ he said.
According to him, the government had allocated a budget of Rs 3.26 billion in 2080 for the blacktopping of a 52-kilometer road from Madichaur, Rolpa to Bagchaur, Salyan. The responsibility for blacktopping the Madan Bhandari Highway road was given to Kumar Shrestha Construction Services. The construction company had signed an agreement in 2081 and had moved forward with the work to complete the work in 3 years. Due to the shortage of petroleum products, the construction company is unlikely to complete the work within the time specified. 
Kishore Pandey of the construction company said that due to the shortage of petroleum products, work could not be done openly and now only laborers are doing the work. He informed that due to the shortage of petroleum products, bitumen and the increase in prices, most of the equipment had to be stopped. ‘We were working 100 percent every day. The speed of work has decreased by 80 percent due to the shortage of oil. Only 20 percent of the work is being done,’ he said, ‘We had already completed 39 kilometers of cutting work from Madichaur in Rolpa to the border of Salyan. There was 13 kilometers of cutting left from Suwaoral in Rolpa to Salyan. That was stopped and 10 kilometers of blacktop in Madichaur in Rolpa could not be done.’
He said that so far, only 40 percent of the 60 percent of the work that needed to be completed has been completed and that there is no possibility of completing the work within the stipulated time due to the shortage of petroleum products.
