Mahendranagar, 25 September

The construction of the short-distance Khalanga-Khar-Gokuleswar road connecting Gokuleshwar to Darchula headquarters Khalanga started in 2055. This section of 52 km has not been completed yet.

Locals walking on a road blocked by a flood in the Badaligaon area of the Gokuleshwar-Khar-Dallekh-Khalanga section of Darchula. Photo: Manoj Badu/Kantipur

The construction of the road has been started from the fiscal year 2055/56 to connect the headquarter through Dethala, Khar, and Dallek through the 'Food for Work Program' with the help of various donor agencies. According to Raghuveer Singh Thagunna, the district coordinator of the program, the food for Work program opened a track of 48 kilometers of roads in about 8 years and was handed over to the then government.

According to him, only 156.7 million was spent to open the track from Kakale to Khalanga. After that, the district development committee, road department, state government, and local government invested in the road piece by piece. He said that the road is not fully ready for traffic yet.

Currently, the Khalanga-Gokuleswar road under the Mahakali Lokmarg is a 72 km paved road. Residents of this area are in trouble as the alternative short-distance road connecting Gokuleshwar to the headquarters has not been completed for a long time. The road connects the headquarters Khalanga through the territory of Shailyashikhar municipality, Naugad rural municipality, and Mahakali municipality from Gokuleshwar. Govindsih Thagunna of Naugad-2 said that the alternative route connecting the headquarters from Gokuleshwar has been incomplete since no one showed interest. After the country went to a federal structure, the Far West Province government announced that this road was given priority. However, there is still no traffic on this road for a few months of the year.

According to Jaimal Thagunna of Khar, if there had been political access for the construction of this road, Mahakali Lokmarg would have been built through this area. At that time, the leaders of the Lekam area of the district traveled a long distance to build a road in their area. He said, "After the majority came, there was a survey for road construction. However, the survey was not enough.

Thagunna says that the leaders of the Lekam area conducted a survey and built a road there. A horse-drawn carriage was built on the route of the present road during the Panchayat period. He said that he was saddened to see that the construction of the road through that route was started from 2055/56 but it has not yet been completed. This road was built by the Kayan Agency. 3/4 months of the year, vehicles drive on paved roads. The rest of the time is completely closed," he said.

The roads proposed by the District Development Committee in the past are now prioritized by the provincial and local levels. Some of the roads proposed three decades ago are still under construction. According to the data, the oldest Gokuleswar-Khar Dallekh-Khalanga road section is also under construction. The road is now being used by small vehicles for short distances.

Now this road is the priority of the Far West Province government. Although it has been said that it will be done in three years by prioritizing the budget for the financial year 2077/78, the track has not yet been opened. Premsingh Thagunna of Naugad-3 said, "Even though there is a local minister in the state government, they could not pay attention to the construction of the road. Even though it has been prioritized in the budget, because no one has paid attention to the construction work, they still have to walk from the village to the headquarters."

According to Jung Bahadur Thapa, Head of the Infrastructure Development Office, Baitadi, work is being done in the Hoprigad-Khar area of Naugad Rural Municipality. Although there is a contract for paving the road in three places of this road section, work is being done in only one place. He said that although there is a contract to cover 22 kilometers of roads in two packages, from Dethala to the Khar area and 8 and a half kilometers from the headquarter of Khalanga to Jhuskumod, work is being done in only one place.

Last year's flood affected the construction of the road. "The work could have been done in the Khalanga area till now," said Thapa, "The work could not be done after the flood of last August washed away the road track." There is no progress in the construction of the road after the landslides caused damage in the Naugad area. He said that the contractor has been mobilized so that 22 km of black paper can be completed by next June.

This year, 160 million budget has been allocated for this road section. The infrastructure office said that a team from the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure is ready to come after a week as a new survey has to be carried out after the flood washed away the tracks in most of the sections from Khalanga to Katay.

At that time, Jivis proposed 18 roads to connect the entire district to the road network. In the proposal, 18 road proposals ranging from 2.5 km to 62 km in length are only in the data. District Coordination Committee Chief Mahadev Badu said that various roads have been proposed in the district to connect each village with the headquarters.