In every election, candidates come and say, "I promised to build a bridge at Jabdighat, vote for me and make me win!" But when the election is over, leaders forget their promises.

The fate of the locals who have to cross the Babai River by taking risks on a boat or a wooden bridge remains the same. With the upcoming elections for the House of Representatives, the locals have already made a fortune – ‘This time too, leaders will come and repeat the same loan promises.’ 

Krishna Dhakal of Barbardiya Municipality-3 travels to and from Gulariya every day. He always faces hardship while crossing the Babai River. ‘Since there is no bridge, we have to cross a boat in the rainy season and a wooden bridge in the winter,’ he says. ‘When crossing a boat or a wooden bridge, we have to pay a tax of Rs 15 for the motorcycle and Rs 10 for the driver to the municipality every time.’ If there is another person on the motorcycle besides the driver, we have to pay an additional Rs 10. 

After crossing the river, we have to cross a sandy road for about 500 meters to reach Gulariya. Bimala Rijal of Gulariya Municipality-7 said that we have to walk in fear because there are leopards in the forest near the bridge. "When the bridge was built, it would have taken 15 minutes to reach the Barbardiya Municipality office," she said, "now it takes more than an hour." Locals say that if someone falls ill in Barbardiya, they have to travel by ambulance from Jayanagar, Sonpur, Padanaha and other places to reach Gulariya via Lathuwaghat.

A contract agreement was signed with Pappu Construction on 22 Ashad 068 to build a 425-meter-long bridge connecting Gulariya and Barbardiya Municipality in Jabdighat. According to the contract agreement, the construction should have been completed by 8 Mangsir 072. The bridge, which was built late at a cost of 166.8 million rupees, collapsed on 28 Shrawan 074 before its foundation stone was laid. The collapsed bridge was also washed away by the flood of 22 Asod 079.

Locals even protested in Gulariya on 24 Pus 080 after the government showed no interest in the reconstruction of the bridge. To put pressure on the construction of the bridge, former minister and MP from the same constituency (Bardiya-1) in 2074 and 2079, Sanjay Gautam, went on a hunger strike from 30 Baisakh 2081. The then Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala reached there on 6 Jestha and broke the hunger strike by promising to take the initiative for the construction of the bridge from tomorrow. But the construction of the bridge was not started due to lack of budget. 

Before that, not only the then Minister of Physical Infrastructure Raghubir Mahaseth, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, but also Kulman Ghising, who became the Minister of Physical Infrastructure in the government formed after the Gen-G movement, assured that the construction of the bridge would be started immediately. Locals say that the then Minister of Internal Affairs of Lumbini Province Tilak Sharma also assured that the construction of the bridge would start soon. ‘It has been 9 years since the bridge collapsed, many ministers have come and gone, but the condition of the bridge is the same,’ said Raju Gautam of Gulariya-4.

According to Kali Bahadur Tharu of Barbardiya-5, Gautam had promised to get the bridge built within two weeks of his victory in the 2079 election. Gautam is also a candidate from the Nepali Congress in the upcoming elections. ‘The work has not progressed because the source has not been assured, the construction of the bridge will move forward after the source is agreed upon,’ he told Kantipur, ‘I have already told the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure in this regard, I have not forgotten this election agenda.’ 

After the bridge collapsed, a five-member investigation committee was formed on 21 Asoj 074 under the coordination of Ayodhya Prasad Shrestha, the then regional director of the Road Division Office, Mid-Western Surkhet. The investigation committee included engineers Pradeep Bhandari, Shiva Adhikari, Jyoti Bhandari and Dinesh Lamsal from the Road Division Office, Nepalgunj.

After the bridge collapsed, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a corruption case in a special court on 19 Asoj 075 against 13 people, including the operator of the contractor company, Hari Narayan Rauniyar, his son Sumit, and the then chief of the Road Division Office, Nepalgunj. Rauniyar, who was elected from Parsa-3 in the 2074 House of Representatives election, was suspended after the case was filed. He joined the UML on 5 Mangsir 2080. 

 The appeal filed by construction entrepreneur Rauniyar and his employees in the Supreme Court after the special court ruled to impose a fine based on the amount is yet to be decided. 

Ramsagar Harijan, Information Officer and Engineer at the Division Road Office, Nepagunj, said that the construction of the bridge at Jabdighat is estimated to cost around Rs 1.1 billion. ‘We had sent the file to the Ministry of Finance through the Road Department to ensure the source,’ he said, ‘The budget has not been approved by the Ministry of Finance.’ According to him, after the process of building the bridge moves forward, it will take at least 6 months for design and survey. The construction period of the bridge will be 26 months.

Bridge incomplete in the district where he has been Prime Minister several times

The construction of the Kankai Bridge has been stalled for 14 years in the constituency of KP Sharma Oli, who has been Prime Minister four times and won elections six times from Jhapa-5. Oli himself has visited the area many times and asked for votes saying, 'The bridge will be built soon.' Other candidates have also included the construction of the bridge in the election agenda.

According to the contract agreement signed on 31 Jestha 2068, the bridge should have been built by 30 Jestha 2072. At that time, the cost was estimated at 349 million rupees. The progress is 60 percent when the deadline was extended for the fifth time. 'If Oli had wanted, this bridge would have been built earlier,' said Ramlakhan Gangai, a local of Gaurigunj. 'I think Oli may have not built it because he did not want it.'

Nepali Communist Party (NCP) coordinator and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is also not unaware of the plight of the Kankai Bridge. Once, during a bridge inspection, he had promised to cancel the contract and start the process of constructing a new one. But locals expressed dissatisfaction saying that no action was taken against the construction entrepreneurs while in government. ‘The bridge has been abandoned for years, leaders come, look, and go but no work is done,’ complained Shyam Kumar Khadka of Gaurigunj-1.

On 27 Mangsir 2077, the then Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Basant Kumar Nembang had instructed the construction company to complete the work quickly, saying that he had inspected it under the direction of Prime Minister Oli. But his instructions also did not work.

Before the Gen-G movement, Oli’s trusted person, Devendra Dahal of Damak, was the Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport. He had said on 2 Shrawan that 105 concrete bridges and 10 bailey bridges had been built across the country during his tenure. But the bridge in his own home district was not his priority. Instead, at a press conference held by the UML-affiliated Press Chautari in Birtamod, Jhapa on December 11, Dahal said, “The work of constructing the Kankai Bridge of the postal service has progressed.” 

Local residents are angry with the leader for suffering while crossing the Kankai River. Locals use a temporary bamboo bridge in winter to cross the Kankai River. Boats are used during the rainy season. This journey is not only risky, but also expensive. The local level contracts for the management of the pontoons and boats. 50 rupees are charged for crossing the river once, and 100 rupees for motorcycles.

School-going students, patients visiting hospitals, and daily wage workers all have problems due to the lack of a bridge. “The postal highway has been built, but without a bridge, it feels like the highway is not for us,” said Shukramati Rajbanshi of Chauri village in Gaurigunj. According to Babulal Murmu, a local from Sadakbari, Jhapa Rural Municipality-2, when there was pressure to break the contract, sometimes 4-5 workers were brought in, photos were taken, and then the work was stopped again. 

Kulman Ghising, who became the Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport for a short time after the Gen-G movement, had instructed to break the contract after there was no progress in the construction of the bridge for a long time, and accordingly, the contract has been broken 14 years after the agreement was signed. Its contract was taken by Pappu and Mahadev Khimti jointly (JV).

Pappu Construction is among the controversial construction companies. The company, which has been left stranded after taking road and bridge contracts in many places, belongs to former MP Rauniyar. Ravi Singh, the head of the Mahadev Khimti Company, is the president of the Federation of Nepal Construction Entrepreneurs. An official from the Postal Highway Project Office said, ‘The contract was broken only after there was no reliable basis for the work to be completed.’ 

Singh of Mahadev Khimti Construction says that there is a weakness in both the contracting and awarding bodies. ‘I have suffered a financial loss of Rs 200 million in this project,’ he had said some time ago, ‘8 spans were poured, 11 were left, and a lot of the gable work had been done.’ After the contract agreement was broken on November 11, the construction company filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking an interim order, but the court did not grant an interim order. 

Kuber Nepali, Director of the Postal Highway Directorate, said that the contract was broken after the construction contractor failed to complete the work despite repeated opportunities. He said, ‘Even though there were no problems, the construction contractor did not complete the work, after which the contract was broken.’ According to Nepali, the matter has been sent to the Finance Ministry for in-principle agreement to award a new contract. 

According to Senior Engineer Yubaraj Pokharel, Planning Chief of the Postal Highway Directorate Project Office, Itahari, the bridge structure has deteriorated due to being abandoned for a long time. "There is a legal complication whether to re-contract the old bridge or move forward with the process for a new designed bridge," he said. 

The Kankai River bridge connecting Jhapa and Gauriganj rural municipalities is considered the backbone of the Postal Highway. This highway, which is called the 'lifeline' of the Terai-Madhesh from Jhapa to Kanchanpur, is still incomplete today because the Kankai Bridge has not been built. Locals say that the commitment has been repeated many times in plans on paper, inspections in the field, and speeches. 'We used to live by crossing boats and rafts,' said Raghubir Rajbanshi, 56, of Gauriganj, who was pushing a bicycle towards Jhapa rural municipality, 'We would probably die without being able to cross a concrete bridge.'

Now, Pappu-Mahadev Khimti has been blacklisted by the Public Procurement Monitoring Office and his bail has been confiscated, says Nepali, Director of the Postal Highway Directorate. ‘It has now been evaluated and a new contract has been sent to the Finance Ministry for in-principle approval,’ he said. ‘Nothing has come of it yet as the broken contracts from the Roads Department have been sent in one go.’ 

Former Secretary Arjun Jung Thapa says that even if a construction entrepreneur wants to, the bridge can be built within the stipulated time. ‘The one-kilometer Karnali Bridge was built in four and a half years,’ he said. ‘That’s not to say that it takes this long to build the bridge. If the construction entrepreneur works hard, there is no problem in completing it within the stipulated time.’ 

He says that the contractor was initially at fault in the construction of the Kankai Bridge in Jhapa. ‘Wherever Pappu Construction has taken the contract, it has often been dishonest. After the Kankai Bridge was left unfinished, Mahadev Khimti, who is in the JV, later took up the work,’ he says. ‘Mahadev Khimti’s operator Singh had said that he would do the work even after selling his farm, but the additional work could not be done due to the non-payment of Rs 60 million. There was no need to wait 14 years to break the contract.’ Thapa says that the mistake in Babai was made by the construction contractor.