Efforts to operate regular transport to Tiptala, China
After the road track was opened from Tiptala Bhanjyang on the Nepal-China border to the settlement of Paktanglung rural municipality-7 Olangchungola, two hump pipes were placed in Sijem river. In 2073, the cost of laying one Hrium pipe was two lakhs.
Seeing the need for steep rivers and hump pipes, China gave 21 small and large hump pipes for free. Pipes brought from China in a truck were brought to Nepali territory and dumped. Those pipes brought in August 1919 are about to be used.
Humans cannot carry hump pipes because it takes a machine to lift them and put them on the tractor. The 166 MW Super Tamor Hydropower Project in Phattanglung-7 Olangchungola working area has now completed road upgrading and hump pipe to the river.
Jitendra Shrestha, the head of the Super Tamor project, said that it was his area of work, and after the request of the ward office, he had done the work of upgrading the road and moving the hump pipe. The hump pipe was placed on a tractor and moved by the excavator that was upgrading the road from Sukepani. It swept through the settlement of Olangchungola to the river, says Cheten Sherpa Lama, the ward president. According to
Cheten, there are 8 pipes of three meters length and one meter diameter. There are 13 of them, one and a half meters long and one meter round. He said that it is ready to be placed at the intersection of Sukepani, Jongin and Yangma-Olangchungola. Tamor river falls in all these three places. There is a plan to request the road office, village technician, machine driver and local workers to put it in the river. Cheten says that he is preparing to start from there as the most need is in dry land.
North-South (Subangkhola-Moolghat-Dovan-Olangchungola) road project chief Sinha Bahadur Bisht said that humpipe will be placed for immediate traffic operation, but a belay bridge will be built in this financial year for sustainable traffic. "In this financial year, we are preparing to build a belay bridge in Sukepani and Jongin," he said, "Now we will take out the belay bridge over the Kabeli river on the border of Taplejung and Panchthar and install it here." He said that the office is preparing to call for tender for this. The office said that another bridge has been built in Kabeli and it is about to be removed as the current pillar of Beilibridge has expired.
The office claims that the bridge will be constructed between Sukepani and Jongin and Tiptala Bhanjyang will be able to run traffic within twelve months. Cheten says that when the water starts to rise in the river, the hump pipe will be removed immediately. "We shouldn't allow such a good hump pipe that was given as a gift to flow," he said. In these two places, the ward office is preparing to install the Belibridge hump pipe in the river above Dobato and Olangchungola. "After doing this, it can last for twelve months," said Tenjing Sherpa, a resident of Olangchungola.
It is estimated by the local residents of Gola that the traffic will be able to run from next week after placing the hump pipe. Now small vehicles (jeep, taxi) with tractors reach Jongin. People go there by car and walk. From here you have to walk for one to two hours to reach the settlement of Olangchungola. The distance from Olangchungola to Tiptala Bhanjyang is 22 km. As it is 5300 meters high, it takes two days to walk.
