Biratnagar, November 19

Locals of Biratnagar metropolis-6, Morang, today pasted photos of their mayor along a road that has remained incomplete for long.

Frustrated locals pasted pamphlets reading ‘My Biratnagar, Beautiful Biratnagar’ with a photo of Mayor Bhim Parajuli on electricity poles along the road, citing the incomplete construction of a road that forks out from the Koshi Highway and heads westward via Shivamandir.

“As our frequent demands for early completion of the road went unheard, we decided to take up this novel form of protest,” said a protester.

Work on sewerage and roadside ditches construction is underway in Biratnagar under the Regional Urban Development Project, but as work on the project remains incomplete, it’s the locals who have been receiving the brunt of the delay.

Project sources, however,  said it has so far finished around 80 per cent of the work and is committed to finishing all the work on time. “We’re working at a fast pace, so far 88 per cent of sewerage construction and 53 per cent of black topping has finished,” said project chief Bharat Neupane.

The project, whose deadline expired in November 2017 had got an extension until 2020 May.

Earlier, locals of Bhaktapur and Dolakha had pasted contractors’ pictures on the roadside and vehicles to protest inordinate delay in road construction.