सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Mustang. Construction entrepreneurs have been found to have cheated in the blacktop of the ring road connecting the wards of Gharpajhong Rural Municipality-5 in Mustang. After complaints of cheating by the construction company while blacktopping the Jomsom-Thini road under the Gharpajhong Ring Road, the Gharpajhong-5 Ward Office has sought an explanation from the Infrastructure Development Office.
The Infrastructure Development Office, Mustang under the Gandaki Province Government, had signed a contract agreement with Bandana Bhagwati JV on Kartik 21, 2076 BS at a cost of Rs 214.3 million for the construction of the Gharpajhong Ring Road under the ‘One Constituency, One Road’ scheme connecting half a dozen villages including Jomsom, Thini, Dhumbatal, Samle, Chhairo and Chimang. There was a plan to open a new track out of 10 km of the Ring Road and blacktop a 5.5 km stretch from Jomsom to Dhumba.
The plan was to blacktop a five km stretch from Jomsom-Thini-Dhumba along with the construction of a road drain. The contract period for the Gharpajhong Ring Road, which was fixed until Magh 2077 BS, has been extended more than five times. The construction company has shown extreme laxity in the construction of the Gharpajhong Ring Road, which is on the list of dilapidated projects, and the completion of the Ring Road is still being delayed.
After repeated requests from the Infrastructure Development Office to the construction company, a 3-km stretch of the Jomsom-Thini road under the Gharpajhong Ring Road was blacktopped last November. Now, locals in the area are expressing dissatisfaction, saying that the blacktop on the Jomsom-Thini road is poor and cracked. Locals have started complaining that the blacktop road has deteriorated due to lack of technical approval from the authorized body.
The construction company had suspended the road upgrading work after blacktopping a three-kilometer stretch of the Gharpajhong Ring Road last December, citing the cold weather. Even after three months of the construction company suspending the work, the construction work on the Ring Road has not yet begun. With public complaints increasing regarding the blacktopping of the Jomsom-Thini road under the Ring Road, the ward office of Gharpajhong-5 Thini sought an explanation from the Infrastructure Development Office on December 21.
The letter signed by the ward chairperson there, Pradeep Thakali, states that the blacktopping of the Jomsom-Thini road is of poor quality and extremely weak. The letter mentions that the ward office has drawn attention to the widespread dissatisfaction of the locals regarding the quality of the blacktop road and has also drawn attention to the fact that the quality of the blacktop road has been informed and a clear answer has been submitted on how the road can be maintained.
Meanwhile, Information Officer of the Infrastructure Development Office, Engineer Ghanashyam Rokkamagar, said that if there is a problem with the Jomsom-Thini blacktop road, it can be resolved. Engineer Rokkamagar informed that the letter from the ward office has been received and a reply has been written and sent. He said that the road is 5 cm thick premix blacktop and if any error is found in the technical study, corrections can be made.
He said, “We will see whether the construction company has implemented the contract agreement and terms and conditions. If the terms and conditions are not followed, they will be ordered to blacktop again.” Information Officer Engineer Rokka Magar mentioned that the contractor did not blacktop the Ring Road road at the appropriate time. “Maybe the problem may have arisen because the temperature did not reach the appropriate time, the work should have been done at the appropriate time,” he added, “After coming to say that they would do the work, they could not say no, so we allowed the blacktop to be done up to Thini village.” The Infrastructure Development Office has stated that 76 percent of the physical progress of the Gharpajhong Ring Road in Mustang has been completed in six years.
The Ring Road still has work to do, including road structure, drainage construction, and road finishing. After the construction of the Gharpajhong Ring Road, it seems that the agricultural produce of half a dozen villages including Thini, Dhumba, Samle, Chhairo, and Chimang, which are overlooked by the main road, will be easily accessible for marketing.
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