Byas Rural Municipality Ward No. 1 in Darchula district has been without communication services for the last seven months, as the building housing a telephone tower collapsed due to heavy snowfall last winter.

It’s been seven months since the incident but the authorities have yet to repair the damaged Nepal Telecom tower in Chhangru, local residents say.

“The building has collapsed. Radios and other equipment inside the building might have gone out of order. But we are yet to know the details of the destruction,” said Krishna Bahadur Gurung, chief at Nepal Telecom in Darchula.

The office of Byas Rural Municipality has requested the telecom office in Darchula to repair the tower and resume telephone services but the local unit has yet to hear from them.

Meanwhile, local residents of Tinkar and Chhangru villages, who had descended to the district headquarters Khalanga to avoid the cold when the tower building collapsed, are now back in their villages for the new plantation season. They complain that they have been facing a lot of inconveniences in the absence of telephone services.

“We have been disconnected from other areas since we don’t have a phone network in our village. We have to walk for a day from Tinkar to reach Chhangru to pass any information,” said Mohan Singh Tinkari, a resident of Tinkar.

Even the security personnel in the recently established border outpost in Chhangru are facing difficulties due to the obstruction in communication services.

“We have a wireless phone at the outpost but it is a one-way communication service. We cannot receive any information from the set,” said Basudev Eatawal, a resident of Chhangru.

According to the Nepal Telecom office in Darchula, the office is aware of the issue in Byas Rural Municipality but it has been unable to send a team for tower repair works due to the pandemic.

“We will send a team to take stock of the damage and resume telephone services in Byas Rural Municipality after the Covid-19 situation comes under control,” said Gurung, the Darchula head of Nepal Telecom office.