Gaighat, April 15
Work to blacktop the road that was carried out a day ago has started peeling along the Katari-Maruwa road section of Siddhicharan Highway.
The blacktop has peeled in almost all areas from Katari Hospital Chowk up to 3,200 metres.
Ganesh Khatri, a local, said the blacktopping was carried out throughout Monday night, but it started peeling the next day. He said the blacktop started peeling in a dozen places.
Rauta Susam Aaditya Regmi JV has taken the responsibility of blacktopping with Rs 3.2 million rupees under the Physical Infrastructure Ministry of Province 1 a year ago. Locals said the road was damaged after the construction company used substandard materials for blacktopping.
Bechu Gupta, a local, said the road had peeled after it was constructed with substandard materials. He said the construction company used the substandard materials as there was no one to monitor the materials. He said the blacktop started peeling off within 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Katrai Municipality Mayor Gyanendra Shrestha said they had started investigation to find out why the blacktop peeled off within 24 hours. He blamed the contractor of being negligent.
He added that his office would call the chief of the authority concerned and the contractor and start the investigation. "Action will be taken against wrongdoers."
Dust along the road has affected the locality and people have protested time and again after the work could not proceed as per the agreement.
Chief at the Infrastructure Road Development Office, Udayapur, Jitendra Karna said he had deployed a technician team to investigate how the blacktop started peeling. He said the reality would come out after the technicians' report.
