Parbat, November 11

A cold store being constructed at Panichaur of Deupur in Modi Rural Municipality is in shambles.

The construction of the cold store was meant to collect farmers’ agro products and supply them to the market at opportune time. The rural municipality is deviating from its plan by constructing the cold store in another area, putting aside the under-construction structure of estimated cost of Rs 50 million.

It may be noted that the cold store construction was initiated in the fiscal 2016-17 to store agro produce, including potato, orange, vegetables and grains. After Khem Bahadur Hamal of Deupur donated land for the cold store, its construction on five ana land was initiated.

According to construction committee Chair Ganga Timilsina, a budget of Rs 2.4 million out of allocated Rs 5 million was only released in the first year. “We started working after the budget was appropriated,” he said, adding that construction work did not make headway after the budget was not released on time. The committee had set the target of completing the construction of cold store in a year. Due to lack of budget, the building construction remained unattended.

Now the building’s ground floor is being used by locals for storing hay and straw.