Sobhit Sahani, a 60-year-old farmer from Hansapur Municipality Ward 2, sells vegetables near the Janakpur railway station every day. He commutes on his bicycle through the Simradi-Janakpur road section covering a distance of around 10km.

But for the past week, Sahani has been taking a different route by bus to his place of business at the railway station since his usual route has been disrupted by road upgrade work.

The Simradi-Janakpur road section falls under the Postal Highway. The Postal Highway project has demolished two bridges—Pulchowk bridge under the Janakpur-Simradi road section in the Janakpur sub-metropolitan city and the Kadamchowk bridge under the Janakpur-Lagma road section from Kamala Municipality—and dug up several metres of the road for upgrade work on the Postal Highway.

Similarly, the Federal Planning Implementation Unit under the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction has simultaneously started work on the Janakpur-Kapileshwar road section for the construction of sewer mains.

The three road sections are the major routes connecting a majority of villages in Saptari and east Dhanusha to Janakpur.

“For the past week, I have been using the bus to travel to and from Janakpur. I am spending at least Rs200 per day just on transportation,” said Sahani. “I used to make a profit of Rs500 to Rs1,000 every day selling vegetables. Now I am spending a considerable chunk of my profit on transport fare.”

The disruption of the three major road sections has created several challenges for the locals, farmers, daily wage workers and businesses.

According to Dinesh Sah, owner of Bishwakant Furniture at Kadamchowk, the footfall in his shop has seen a significant decline since the road construction began.

“Work on all three road sections is estimated to be completed in four months,” said Sah. “I don’t know if my business will be able to sustain without customers for so long.”

More than 150 to 200 local businesses at Kadamchowk have been affected by the disruption in road connectivity.

“Before demolishing the bridges and disrupting the roads, both authorities should have constructed an alternative road to Janakpur, but they did not. Now people have to take a detour of 60km to 80km to reach Janakpur from the villages. Earlier they needed to travel 10km-15km to reach Janakpur,” said Shah.

Lack of coordination between the Postal Highway project and the Department of Urban Development led to both the projects being implemented simultaneously. “Road upgrade work and construction of sewage tunnels started at the same time a week ago. The authorities did not think before starting work on these projects together and the impact it would have on the lives of the locals,” said Shah.

“The locals are furious because all three roads are blocked at once. The bridge should have been demolished only after constructing an alternative road,” said Bharat Sah, a bicycle dealer at Pulchowk in Janakpur-1.

According to officials of Sugam Construction Company, which has been contracted to construct the two bridges, the bridges will be ready by the end of the current fiscal year, which is mid-July.

Laxman Yadav, Divisional Engineer of the Federal Planning Implementation Unit, says their department was unaware of the Postal Highway’s plans to construct the bridges in the two major road sections leading to Janakpur. He expects their project to also finish by the end of the current fiscal year.

Similarly, according to divisional engineer Krishna Dev Mahato of the Postal Highway project, they too were unaware of the Federal Planning Implementation Unit’s project. An all-party meeting was held at the district administration office (Dhanusha) before the bridges were demolished. According to the decision of the meeting, with the aim of completing the construction by the end of the fiscal year, both roads were demolished simultaneously.

“We couldn’t create an alternate route before starting the upgrade work, but we will try to complete the project as soon as possible,” said Mahato.

“This is the season to sell wheat grains and I am having difficulty reaching the markets owing to the road construction work,” said Sahani. “It will soon be time to plant paddy, so farmers in Siraha and eastern Dhanusha are worried because road disruption will hamper the supply of seeds, workers and machinery.”