The Gauridanda area of BP Highway in Bardibas Municipality has been accident-prone as the authorities concerned have yet to clear trees standing in the middle of the road after it was widened a year ago.

The road widening in the Gauridanda area in ward 3 of Bardibas Municipality, Mahottari district, was completed last year, but around 300 trees still obstruct the widened section, which spans around three kilometres. The delay in cutting down the trees has been attributed to indecision and lack of coordination among the authorities.

“The trees are in the middle of the road after the road expansion. The branches break off quite often and fall on moving vehicles or electricity lines and disrupt power supply. Speeding vehicles sometimes crash into the trees. Many such accidents occurred in the Gauridanda area over the past one year,” said Guja Bahadur Karki of Gauridanda who is also Mahottari chairman of the hotel and tourism entrepreneurs’ association.

According to him, local residents and bus operators among others affected have repeatedly asked the authorities to fell the trees but to no avail.

Local residents and their elected local representatives asked the Road Division Office in Sindhuli and the Division Forest Office in Mahottari to clear the trees. But the problem remains unaddressed mainly due to a blame game between the two offices.

“Local residents and other stakeholders held a gathering and requested the Road Division Office and the Division Forest Office several times to clear the trees. But they keep pointing fingers at each other, and have taken no initiatives to resolve the issue,” said Ram Lama, a local.

According to him, travelling along the road section is quite risky.

The narrow road in Gauridanda has become more dangerous as traffic has increased and there are now more houses and businesses in the area compared to a few years ago.

Although the road section was widened by the Suryabinayak-Dhulikhel-Sindhuli-Bardibas Road Project at the request of local stakeholders, the failure to clear the trees has only made matters worse for them.

Ajay Mishra, chief of the Division Forest Office, says they are ready to cut down the trees, but have yet to get permission from the Road Division Office. He assured of immediate action once the permission is received.

The Road Division Office in Sindhuli also said it is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. “I have assigned an engineer to study the issue and prepare a report. We will cut down the trees in coordination with the forest office soon after the engineer submits a report,” said Parasmani Hamal, chief at the road office.

The Gauridanda section of BP Highway was previously under the Suryabinayak-Dhulikhel-Sindhuli-Bardibas Road Project. The road was handed over to the Road Division Office, Sindhuli at the beginning of the current fiscal year. BP Highway is the shortest route connecting Tarai districts in eastern Nepal with the Capital. The 160 km highway was constructed with financial and technical assistance from the Japanese government.