Doti, January 18

Thirty-three years after its foundation stone was laid, construction of the 43-kilometre Bogatan road that will link villages in Doti with district headquarters Dipayal has yet to be completed.

The foundation stone was laid for the construction of a 108-km road. However, even the track has not been opened along the 43-km section, said Roj Bahadur Kalel of Badikedar Rural Municipality. “I was a kid when the construction of the road started. But even after all these years, the road has still not been completed,” he said.

Locals complained that the political leaders made tall promises during the elections, but once they got election they never came back to the villages.

Delay in preparation of the Environmental Impact Assessment report has been blamed for the delay in construction of the road. The road will link two rural municipalities of Kailali and four of Doti. Locals are forced to walk for hours to reach the nearby town and their agricultural products go to waste for want of a reliable means of transportation to take them to the market.

“Agricultural production in our village is high, but farmers find it difficult to take their produce to the market for want of a reliable means of transportation,” said chair of Badikedar Rural Municipality Krishna Bahadur Chand.

Of the 65-km road which has been completed, 55-km stretch is in the process of being blacktopped, said Bam Bahadur Kalel, a local resident.