Swachhanda Construction Services, the contractor building a bridge over the Tamor river at Lumbughat in Tehrathum district, has been accused of failing to deliver the project in time and of using substandard construction materials.

The firm was awarded the contract to build the bridge to connect Myanglung Municipality in the district with Kummayak Rural Municipality in the neighbouring district of Panchthar about seven years ago. It was a three-year contract, but the bridge remains incomplete even four years after the expiry of the contract deadline.

Only around 40 percent of the project has been built so far, and there have been a widespread complaint about the use of inferior materials in the bridge construction.

Myanglung Mayor Sanjaya Tumbahamphe said a team, including MP Basanta Kumar Nembang and other people representatives, recently inspected the project site following the complaints about the construction delay and use of substandard materials.

“We found that the materials being used for the bridge construction were indeed of poor quality. We have informed the concerned authority to perform a lab test of construction materials. We have also directed the contractor company to stop construction works until we receive the lab report,” Tumbahamphe said.

Pramod Neupane, the project engineer, however, denied the allegation about the use of inferior materials in the bridge construction.

“The construction materials used for the bridge construction have all been lab tested and approved,” he claimed.  

Jaya Bahadur Chemjong, chairman of Kummayak Rural Municipality in Panchthar, also demanded the authorities concerned to put pressure on the contractor not to further delay the project.