After six years the construction of Jajarkot-Dolpa Bheri corridor is yet to be completed. Blaming the government of not allocating the required funds on time, the Nepali Army (NA), who had taken the responsibility of the construction, said that the work would not be accomplished with the timeframe.
The government had only provided Rs 9 million for the project during the last fiscal years. What more, the government forwarded another proposal to expand the track to district headquarters Dunai but only released Rs 14 million for the fiscal year.
“It is sad that the government has not prioritised the timely construction of the road which would eventually turn into the East-West Highway,” said local Bir Bahadur Shahi of Rimi. The road would connect Upper Dolpa to Tibet, he added. “The backward communities and the economically deprived in the region are yet to come to terms with the peace process,” Shahi said.
Meanwhile, the NA has completed 89 kms out of the total 116 kms of the highway along Jajarkot, Rukum, and Dolpa. According to Lieutenant Colonel Biswo Bandhu Pahadi, an engineer and the Chief of the road construction taskforce, the construction of 27 km track along Khadang in Dolpa, Lahaan VDC and Gotamekot region of Rukum had is on course to be completed. Pahadi said that the remaining 25 kms was a rocky terrain, which has made work more tough and that a minimum of Rs 500 million is required to blast their way out through the rocky terrain.
The NA has spent approximately Rs 600 million on the project till date and has given momentum to the work by setting up their camps at five locations.
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