Gaighat, May 23

Work at the under-construction national pride project Chatara-Bhiman road section was halted after Chaudhandi Municipality Ward No 10 Chair Kamaldhwaj Rai thrashed the contractor company’s engineers at Satdhare in Udayapur today.

Construction of the road had been halted for the past four months due to dispute over map of the road and it resumed just yesterday.

Ward Chair Rai attacked the contractor Lama and Sharma JV’s engineer duo Sandip Bista and Kishor KC at the work site. Earlier, Rai had asked the engineers to divert the road track in a bid to save his house, which was to be demolished for opening the road track. But they refused to do so.

The contractor company halted all kinds of construction work showing security concerns for  staffers. Of the 134-km road, the contractor has completed 40 per cent of the total construction. Lama and Sharma  JV was entrusted with the contract for Rs six billion. The company has been reporting that it was technically difficult to divert the road track along the Chatara-Gaighat-Katari- Sindhuli-Hetauda road section. Due to the same dispute, road construction along the Satdhare road had been halted for the past four months.

Meanwhile, Sitaram Dahal, deputy manager of Lama and Sharma JV, said they stopped the construction due to security reasons. “We may resume work only after a conducive atmosphere is created. The people’s representatives, who are supposed to support developmental activities, have misbehaved with us,” he said.