Even after 1 year has passed since the collapse of three-span Khare bridge on Madan Bhandari highway located in Dharan sub-metropolitan city-8, the locals have to suffer because the government is not interested in the reconstruction.
Dharan-8 Arun Tol, Dharan-8 Arun Tol, which was completed in March 2080, was destroyed in the month of July, less than 5 months after the construction was completed.
Locals have been complaining that the government is not interested in rebuilding the bridge even after it has been almost 10 months. With the collapse of the bridge, fear has increased to walk during the rainy season, said the local Jeevan Tamang.
He said that while building this section of Madan Bhandari Highway, a new bridge had to be built, and the dilapidated bridge had collapsed because it could not withstand the load. As the bridge could not be constructed on time, the locals had to take a detour.
Due to the lack of a bridge, children have been suffering while going to school and common people have been suffering. He said that one person lost his life due to the collapsed bridge last October. Locals complain that the risk of flooding of the village has increased due to the collapse of the bridge and the accumulation of rainwater.
"The bridge that collapsed during the heavy rains does not seem to have been repaired even though the rains are about to start again this year," said local Bimal Rai. This bridge, which was built 6 decades ago, had started collapsing in places and was in a dilapidated state.
Rai said that the locals had to suffer because the bridge was built over a dilapidated bridge and a new bridge had to be built when the highway was black. Rai says, "It takes a lot of time to go around, so they are forced to take risks and travel through the broken bridge." But the vehicle is not in a state where it can be dug . Local Poonam Tamang says that when the road is blocked due to the collapse of the
bridge, especially the ambulances that bring patients from various places in the east to the VP Institute have more problems. After the bridge collapsed and the road was blocked, ambulances and other vehicles are forced to go to the establishment via Bhanu Chowk or other roads.
"It was a short distance to reach the hospital from this road, but now the patient has recovered as they have to go through Bhanu Chowk," she said. When the British Ghopa camp was established in the year 2017, since it would be an easy and short distance to go to Ghopa, this bridge of 32 feet length was constructed by placing 3 beams of iron plates, said Dhan Bahadur Rai, Ward President of Dharan-8.
"When the Madan Bhandari highway was built, it was the result of pitching on a dilapidated structure without interest in building a new bridge," Ward President Rai said, "If the bridge had become dilapidated, it would have started collapsing somewhere." In such a situation, this situation was created when Madan Bhandari Highway Project pitched a new bridge on top of it.'' "At that time, a black letter was given by promising to build a new bridge, but the old bridge could not hold the load and the bridge collapsed after a while," he said.
In 2080, the two-lane Madan Rajbhandari highway was black-lettered with the investment of the Nepal government. Moti Dan Construction Company Kathmandu got the contract to make the highway black paper . Isahak Rai, a technician of the contractor company, said that because he only got the contract to make curled and black paper, black paper was done on the dilapidated bridge. Dharan Sub-Metropolitan Deputy Chief Aindra Vikram Begha said that he inspected the bridge with Ward President Rai last Tuesday.
According to him, until the construction of the bridge, a temporary cabin is planned to drain the water from the culvert. Ward president Rai said that the construction process of the bridge will start soon as there are talks with the Madan Bhandari highway project for the reconstruction of the bridge.
Due to the water of the drains of the market area of Dharan being mixed with this Khare, there is a big flood in Barkha. Although the municipality has prepared to bring water from the culvert by bringing a temporary cabin, the locals have expressed concern about it. There is fear among the locals who enter the village after the flood cannot stop. There are more than two hundred houses at direct risk of flooding.
