Ratna Bahadur Rana, a resident of Ghartichhap in Kavre’s Dandapari, still remembers the time when he had to walk to Banepa and Dapcha to buy essentials, including salt and kerosene. Until 15 years back, Rana and his neighbours had to walk for three to four days to reach the nearest market places.

“Those days are long gone now,” says Rana. A passenger bus routinely leaves for Banepa from Rana’s village every morning. A trip to and from Banepa is only a day’s journey today. “I shudder to think about the time when we had to walk for days just to buy salt. Now that the road network has connected our village to city areas, we no longer have to live with hardships.”

Dandapari lies in a remote south corner of Kavre district, about a four-hour drive from Dhulikhel, the district headquarters. After the country adopted federalism in 2017, the Dandapari area has been restructured into Mahabharat and Khanikhola rural municipalities, which are around 60 km and 80 km from Dhulikhel, respectively.

All the wards of Mahabharat and Khanikhola are connected with road network today.

“Our villages were lagging in infrastructure development in the past because it would take four days to transport construction materials to this area. The opening of road tracks has made our lives easier,” said Birman Lama of Phoksingtar.

Keeping in view the local body’s geographical remoteness, the elected people’s representatives prioritised road construction soon after the local level elections in 2017.

“All eight wards in the rural municipality have been connected with road network now. We are planning to upgrade the road so that transportation is possible around the year,” said Kanchhalal Jimwa, chairman of Mahabharat Rural Municipality. “Detailed project report is underway to blacktop the Mangaltar-Gokule road section.”

The Province 3 government in the last fiscal year provided a special grant of Rs 50 million to Mahabharat Rural Municipality. The local unit spent the budget on road construction.

However, concerns have been raised in regards to the road network that has reached Dandapari, as haphazard openings of roads in rural areas have attributed to the frequent occurrence of natural disasters in the country’s hilly districts.

“We understand the risk of opening roads in rural areas without conducting proper geographical studies. That is why most of the newly opened tracks leading to Dandapari were constructed as per the survey conducted by the technicians of the local units,” said Jimwa.