Construction of a new bridge over the Babai River, meant to connect Gulariya and Barbardiya municipalities, has been left in limbo for years due to a lack of budget approval.

The previous bridge was swept away by floods eight years ago, leaving more than 150,000 residents struggling with mobility. Although a proposal for budget approval was submitted two years ago, the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission have yet to approve, halting the project.

Narendra Prasad Bhatta, chief of the Division Road Office in Nepalgunj, said the proposal was cancelled last fiscal year due to the lack of budget consent. “We have resubmitted the file through the Department of Roads. Construction will begin once approval is granted,” he said.

However, the department officials showed unawareness about the matter. Engineer Shyam Bahadur Khadka, the department’s information officer, said the file was sent to the ministry and remains pending there.

The Division Road Office had terminated the contract with Pappu Construction five years after the bridge, built at Jabdighat in Bardiya, collapsed before being handed over. The company had completed the Rs167.8 million project in 2017, but the structure sank in August of the same year. Another flood in October 2022 completely halted movement across the river.

Without a bridge, residents have been forced to rely on wooden structures and boats. Locals said successive ministers and lawmakers had promised to rebuild the bridge but failed to act.

A 23-km blacktopped road from Rammapur along the East-West Highway to Rajanbas in Gulariya was completed five years ago, but without the bridge, transport links between the two municipalities remain cut off.

Former Barbardiya mayor Durga Bahadur Tharu said about 150,000 people in the area are suffering due to the prolonged delay. Lawmaker Sanjay Gautam had staged an eight-day hunger strike in May 2023, demanding bridge construction. Then Physical Infrastructure and Transport Minister Prakash Jwala had signed a written agreement to call a tender within a month, but the commitment remains unfulfilled.

The Division Road Office said it has prepared an estimate of Rs1.19 billion for a 400-metre-long new bridge to be built 500 metres north of the collapsed structure.