Bajura, September 15

There has been an acute shortage of daily essentials in the northern belt of Bajura, Humla and Mugu districts as the only road to link the belt remains obstructed for long.

The Bajura’s Martadi-Kolti road has been obstructed after torrential rains and landslides ravaged the road around three months ago. “As the road is inoperable, stocks of daily necessities in the local markets have run out, which has caused unnecessary price hike,” said a local trader Janam Dhami.

According to Himali Rural Municipality Chair Govind Bahadur Malla, prices of commodities have gone up by 50 per cent. “While rice costs 120 per kg, a packet of salt now costs over 50 rupees,” he said.

Manoj Bohora, a trader based in Kolti, however, described the price hike reasonable. “Earlier, we used to pay just five rupees to bring things to Kolti from Martadi by tractor; now we’re paying up to Rs 30/kg to transport things on draft animals,” he informed, adding that transporting goods to the rural areas had become a real trouble.

The road obstruction has particularly hit patients. In the absence of transport facility, it takes four to five days to carry patients all the way to the district hospital. In a case in point, it took a week for Rithu Bohora to reach the district hospital riding on the back of her kin.

Construction of the 43 km road started 16 years ago, but so far only the track has been opened. Though jeeps and tractors ply the track during the dry season, the road remains inoperable during monsoon.