A lack of budget has affected the construction work of a four-lane bridge over the Mahakali River connecting Dodhara Chandani Municipality with Bhimdatta Municipality.

Work on the bridge remains stalled for the past three months.

According to the construction company Kumar Shrestha CFEC JV, the government is yet to release around Rs250 million for the work completed in the fiscal year 2022-23 and for the first three months of the current fiscal year. “The construction work was halted before Dashain (October third week) as we could not buy construction materials and pay wages to the workers,” said Kishor Pandeya, an engineer of the bridge project.

Officials say around 95 percent of the construction work is complete and it would take the construction company only a few months to complete the rest if the pending payment is released. Work on the guide bunds (embankment) and access roads are in the final stage.

“The authorities have not released Rs40 million for the last fiscal year. Even the reevaluation cost of the changed design is yet to be issued. Rs180 million released in the current fiscal year was not enough to clear the payment of the last fiscal year,” said Pandeya.

The width of the Mahakali River where the bridge is situated is two kilometres. But the bridge is only 800 metres long. To keep the river on course, around 5.5 kilometres-long embankment needs to be constructed for which large boulders are needed, according to the design estimate of the bridge. In the earlier design of the bridge project 98,700 cubic metres of stones, each weighing more than 252 kilograms, were required to construct the guide bunds. The design has been changed as the bridge project could not find large boulders. Similarly, the design of spurs constructed upstream from the bridge has also been changed.

The construction of eight kilometres of access road from Gaddachauki of Bhimdatta to Malariya Nala in Dodhara Chandani has been completed. Only two kilometres of the road is yet to be blacktopped.

Construction work on the project started in 2017. The project deadline was extended three times. As per the latest extended dateline, the project should be completed by March 28, 2024. The estimated budget of the project was Rs3.27 billion initially. But the budget reached up to Rs 3.66 billion due to design changes and delays.

“We were all set to complete the project by mid-January. But it is almost impossible to complete the project within the extended deadline due to budget shortage,” said Pandeya.

According to the Mahakali Bridge Project, it has requested the federal government to release a total of Rs520 million to complete the bridge. “At least Rs 200 million budget should be released immediately to resume the construction work. The contractor stopped work as it could not pay wages to the workers and buy construction materials,” said Ram Bahadur Gurung, chief of the Mahakali Bridge Project.

The town of Dodhara Chandani, which is connected to the bordering Indian town by a suspension bridge, could develop into a major border town with the construction of the motorable bridge. The four-lane bridge is considered a major infrastructure of the proposed Dodhara Chandani dry port and check post.

During Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s India visit in May-June, an agreement was signed between the two countries to complete the construction of the dry port within three years.

It is expected that the dry port, once completed, will contribute to the industrial development in the western region by boosting trade between Nepal and India. The dry port will provide the shortest route to two key ports—Mundra Port, India's largest private port in Gujarat, and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai.