January 23: The upgrading of the Beni-Jomson road section under the Kali Gandaki Corridor is taking place at a snail’s pace. The Kali Gandaki Corridor Road Project is being upgraded in four packages. This strategic road stretches from Parbat to Mustang district via Myagdi and leads up to the China border. The 76-km Beni-Jomsom road section under the project should have been completed by December 2019 but the project is yet to blacktop the road.

Local residents as well as tourists visiting Mustang have been affected because the work of this vital road connecting China and India could not be completed on time. Similarly, the possibility of trade between Nepal and China through the Korala border is also yet to materialize due to the delay in completion of the road.

The road could not pick up pace because the construction company did not step up efforts to mobilize human resources and equipment. The progress of the Myagdi section is less than that of the Mustang section.

The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport has set a deadline of mid-July for the construction company to complete the work of blacktopping the Beni-Jomsom road.

Sharma United JV, which has bagged the contract for upgrading 20 km road from Galeshwar to Narchyang Bridge and Sharma Gajurmukhi, which was awarded the contract for upgrading 17 km road from Narchyang Bridge to Kaikukhola in Ghasa, Mustang, have defaulted their work.

Meanwhile, the expansion and upgrading works in the Mustang section has come to a standstill due to extreme cold. Work on the 40 km (first and second package) road from Galeshwar, the starting point of the project, to Mustang’s border in Ghasa is also slow. Currently, 8-10 laborers are building the retaining wall.

Jagat Prajapati, head of the Beni-Jomsom-Korla Road Project said that the work is sluggish towards Myagdi while it has come to a halt towards the Mustang side due to cold.

“The laborers who went to celebrate Dashain did not return because of the election, but now they are not returning because it is cold. We are urging the contractors to speed up the construction,” he said.

He pointed towards technical problem in extending the Beni-Ghasa road section. He said, “Studies are ongoing to build a tunnel in Bhirkate, while a bridge on the Rupse Waterfall was swept away by the flood last year and the contract is yet to be finalized.”

According to Prajapati, upgrading the road along the Maldhunga-Beni section (13 km) and Beni-Galeshwar section (3 km) of Parbat district has also been started since last year. The work of diverting the drain water was delayed after the locals obstructed it. The project said that 35 percent of the work on the Maldhunga-Beni road section has been completed.

Prajapati informed that 70 percent of the first package of Galeshwar-Tatopani, 65 percent of the second package of Tatopani-Ghasa, 100 percent of the third package of Ghasa-Kaikukhola and 68 percent of the work on Kaiku-Jomsom road have been completed.

Prajapati said, “We have told the contractors to be ready to do the blacktopping as soon as the summer starts and the temperature is suitable for asphalting.”