Construction of the Mid-Hill Highway, a national pride project, has come to a halt at its starting point in Panchthar district after workers abandoned the site due to unpaid wages. About 150 workers, who had been employed across a 51-kilometre stretch of the highway under three different contracts, stopped working two weeks ago after they did not receive their wages due for six months.

Two joint venture companies—Roshan Shivashakti JV and Santoshi Shivashakti JV—were awarded the contracts for upgrading the road. Their failure to pay the workers has left the road section in disarray.

As per the contract agreement, the project had to be completed in 2021. The government has extended the deadline three times, with the final extension ending in December this year. But so far, only around 27 percent of work has been completed on the first section, 14 percent on the second and 49 percent on the third.

“The situation is particularly dire in the second section managed by Santoshi Shivashakti JV,” said Nar Bahadur Gurung, ward member of Yangwarak Rural Municipality-1. According to him, the contractor has not provided wages amounting nearly Rs10 million to the workers.

According to the Mid-Hill Highway Project Office in Phidim, despite repeated commitments from contractor Surendra Pathak to resume work, adequate machinery, tools and manpower have not been deployed, resulting in a delay of the road project.

The road, which connects Darimba in Yangwarak-4 to Chiwabhanjyang at the Nepal-India border through Phalaincha and Chyangthapu, has seen little progress despite repeated warnings. “The contractor has ignored our calls to expedite the work,” said Dipendra Pandey, chief of the Mid-Hill Highway Project Office in Phidim. Pandey added that awarding all three contracts to the same contractor was a major misstep.

The stalled construction has caused severe hardship for residents of Yangwarak Rural Municipality’s wards 1, 2, and 3 in Panchthar, as well as wards 1 and 2 of Sidingwa Rural Municipality in neighbouring Taplejung district. With monsoon season approaching, locals fear shortages of food and daily essentials due to transport disruptions.

Though discussions have been held at the district administration office, Mid-Hill Highway Project Office in Phidim, and even ministerial levels about terminating the contract, no decision has been made so far. The impasse partly stems from a lack of coordination between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure regarding how to proceed if the contract is cancelled.

The initial contract was signed in January 2020 with Shivashakti Construction Services, which agreed to complete 51 kilometres of road from Darimba to Chiwabhanjyang within two years at a cost of Rs1.25 billion. However, after six years, progress remains well below expectations. Multiple culverts, causeways and bridges over streams such as Oyam, Osam, and Phalam were also damaged in floods last year, further delaying the work. While dry weather allows for some movement, vehicles and pedestrians are unable to cross many of these areas during the rainy season.

Contractor Surendra Pathak blames delays on various factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 elections and fuel price hikes. But project chief Pandey rejects these excuses. “They vanish during winter and return with a few workers only when the monsoon rains begin,” he said. “This negligence is why the road remains in such a terrible state.”

The project was divided into three sections, all awarded to Shivashakti Construction Services through different joint ventures—Roshan Shivashakti JV for the first section, Santoshi Shivashakti JV for the second and Roshan Shivashakti JV again for the third. Surendra Pathak is the proprietor of all three.

According to driver Mohan Limbu, what once took two hours to drive from Tharpu to Chyangthapu—a 21-kilometre stretch—in the dry season now takes an entire day due to deteriorated road conditions.

Locals report frequent vehicle crashes on the unpaved and muddy roads from Tharpu to Oyam. Bigyan Prasain, who was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash on the Tharpu-Chyangthapu section, laments that the Mid-Hill Highway, once seen as a beacon of development, has become an obstacle instead.

Around 30 kilometres of road from Chyangthapu to Nepal-India border point remain in a sorry state. In some sections, large stones have piled up in the middle of the road, rendering it impassable. Even the Armed Police Force’s border outpost at Chiwabhanjyang is struggling to transport food and supplies, especially in the monsoon season. Yak and sheep herders operating around Chiwabhanjyang, which sits at an altitude of around 3,200 metres, are also facing increasing hardships in transporting animal feed.

The Panchthar section of the Mid-Hill Highway spans 114 kilometres of the highway’s total 1,879 kilometres, extending from Chiwabhanjyang in the east to Jhulaghat of Baitadi district in the west. Although the road from the Tamor river to Darimba has been already blacktopped, the Darimba-Chiwabhanjyang stretch has seen delayed progress even after 17 years since the national pride project was initiated.

“The government has conspicuously protected the contractor by extending deadlines three times despite poor work performance,” said Bhim Bahadur Yongya, chairman of Yangwarak Rural Municipality. “If we want real progress, work should begin from Darimba. But instead, the contractor started work from Chiwabhanjyang.”