Kathmandu, June 11

Locals residing along the 12.5-km Chabahil-Sankhu road stretch in Thali of Kageshwori-Manahara Municipality today morning blocked the road segment, demanding timely blacktopping of the road in their area.

The locals took to the streets to exert pressure on the government just a month after they had reached an agreement with the contractors on May-10, to blacktop the road section from Chabahil to Jorpati bridge.

Locals residing along the 3-km road segment from Hariyali Nagar to Brahmakhel, along the Chabahil-Jorpati stretch have complained that the roads were filled with potholes as deep as 3-feet. Two to three accidents were recorded every day along the road segment, they said.

Chabahil-Sankhu road segment has remained in a dilapidated state for four almost years. The government had awarded contracts to six different contractors to build the road segment in September 2015. The contractors had removed existing blacktop in order to widen the road, but the road has been neither widened nor blacktopped again.

Manis Simkhada, a local activist said, “Few years ago, the road was clean and blacktopped. One day the contractor used bulldozer to remove the blacktop and left the road in the lurch without further work.”

The government had awarded a contract of Rs 507.1 million to Bajraguru-Biruwa-Khani JV on 20 Sept 2015, with a deadline to complete widening and blacktopping of the road on 27 April 2017. A report by Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project, shows only 40 per cent of the project work had been completed till the end of March 2019.

Spokesperson for Kageswori-Manohara Municipality, Rajaram Pudasaini said dispute over compensation to be provided for land owners had delayed widening of the road.