Chabahil locals on Monday took to the streets for about an hour to protest against the “snail-paced work” of the Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) which is laying pipes in different parts of the Capital.

Locals and business people from the area descended on the road at around 11:30 in the morning and obstructed vehicular movement along the Chabahil-Mitrapark road section until police dispersed them to resume traffic which was thrown out of gear, given the area is one of the major thoroughfares of the Capital city. Locals were protesting particularly against the delay on the part of the project to repair the road sections that have been dug up for laying pipes.

Project officials say the road sections that have been dug up would be repaired by May. But till Monday, only 20 percent of the dug-up road sections was blacktopped. So far, the Department of Roads has blacktopped road sections at Lainchaur-Panipokhari, Maitighar-Thapathali and Anamnagar. “We resorted to protest in view of the air pollution and traffic congestion caused by the dug-up roads,” said Sameer Sharma, a local who was among the protesters. “Not only has this pipeline laying work resulted in pollution but also has caused severe traffic congestion… so much so it has become

difficult even to walk. This is affecting our health as well as our businesses.”

The DoR has been tasked with blacktopping around 28km road sections dug up for laying water pipelines. So far, only five kilometres of pipeline laying work has been completed and only 3.5km of stretches have been blacktopped.

“In some areas where we are laying pipes, old pipelines are leaking due to which blacktopping becomes difficult,” said Ram Bahadur Gurung, an engineer at the road office.