The Bailey Bridge over the Tilabey River on the Gandak Canal, which was scheduled to be constructed in the current fiscal year, will not be constructed this year either, following the cuts in the allocated budget. The government has cut the budget for most of the projects after the Gen-G movement, and this bridge's budget was also included in that.

The federal government had allocated Rs 30 million for the construction of this bridge in the current fiscal year. After that, the Narayani Irrigation Management Office, Birgunj, had even called for tenders for it. But after the Gen-G movement, the contract has been stopped. The previous concrete bridge on the approach road of the Gandak Canal, which connects the district headquarters, Birgunj, with the north-western part of the district, was damaged by a flood two years ago. There was talk of building a Bailey Bridge on the river last year, but in the end, the plan to build a Bailey Bridge was shelved in the last fiscal year as well due to lack of budget management. The tender for the construction of this Bailey Bridge was called for last year as well. A tender of Rs 33 million was invited for the construction of a Bailey Bridge on the Tilabey River on the border of Birgunj Metropolitan City and Bahudarmai Municipality, and the joint venture company Medanta/Mohammad Islam was awarded the contract for Rs 31.7 million. But the plan to build the Bailey Bridge was uncertain due to the lack of assurance of the budget for the construction of the Bailey Bridge.

In the current fiscal year, the budget that had been allocated has also been withheld, which increases the possibility that the bridge will not be built this year. Social activist Prakash Tharu says that after three years since the bridge on the road used by many people in the district was damaged, repeatedly raising the dream of building a Bailey Bridge as an alternative bridge and then demolishing it again is just playing with the feelings of the people of that region.

‘Keeping the bridge on the busiest road section of the district as it is for three years without reconstructing it or building a Bailey bridge as an alternative is playing with the sentiments of the people of that area,’ he said, ‘It was not only the pressure of the local people that was not enough, the local people’s representatives should also put strong pressure on the concerned bodies for this bridge.’

Manoj Patel, head of the Narayani Irrigation Management Office, Birgunj, said that the construction of the Bailey bridge could not gain momentum after the federal Ministry of Physical Infrastructure did not allocate budget for the Bailey bridge last year. ‘Although it failed last year, there was a possibility that the construction of the Bailey bridge would gain momentum this year,’ he said, ‘but the allocated budget has been cut this year too.’

The RCC bridge over the Tilabey River in the canal was damaged by the flood that occurred in Ashar two years ago.’ Considering the potential danger after the bridge's pillars were damaged, the Narayani Irrigation Management Office has banned traffic from the bridge. But pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are still using the bridge. The possibility of accidents has increased since the bridge has not been banned. If the bridge is damaged further, there is a possibility that the Gandak Canal's siphon will also be damaged, completely blocking the canal system.

The Gandak Canal and its associated structures were built by India in two phases in 1975 and 1976 and handed over to the Nepalese government. The canal that enters Nepal from Janaki Tol in Parsa and merges with the Bagmati River in Rautahat is called the Eastern Canal. At that time, this 81-km-long canal was aimed at irrigating 31,400 hectares of land in three districts, Parsa, Bara and Rautahat.

The approach road built along the canal and the bridge on it have been used by residents of all three districts as an alternative to the postal road. The federal government has also blacktopped the approach road from Rautahat to Parsa. However, during this process, the dilapidated bridges have not been repaired or new bridges have been built in their place. After the road was blacktopped, the use of this road has increased even more. This has increased the load on the dilapidated bridges. However, due to excessive use, even the general maintenance of the river bridges on the approach road has not been done, and all the bridges have become dilapidated.