JAJARKOT, Jan 16: The Jajarkot section of Mid-Hills Highway is in a sorry state.
Heavy rainfall and landslide in the rainy season has left the 92-kilometer section between Kudu of Jajarkot to Suyada in the border of Jajarkot and Dailekh nearly inoperable.
Locals attributed the sorry state of the road to lack of maintenance and delay in upgrading of the road. “The condition of the road is deteriorating with each passing day,” said Ganesh Kumar Basnet of Chhedagad Municipality Ward No. 13.
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As the drainage of the road section has not been made, rainwater flowed on the road sweeping mud and pebbles downwards.
The bad road has not only affected the daily life of locals, but has also made it difficult to travel to district headquarters and commercial centers in the western part of the district, according to Ramesh Kumar, a local from Jagatipur, said.
Subhraj Neupane, senior divisional engineer of Mid-Hills Highway Project's Dang Office told Republica that upgradation of the road section will begin very soon. He also added that the project was preparing to open tender for road expansion, drainage construction and blacktopping of the road section within mid-February.
“The work saw some delay as it took us a bit more time to prepare Detailed Project Report (DPR),” Neupane said, adding that road will be blacktopped within three years.
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament from Jajarkot, Shakti Bahadur Basnet, has assured that he would take needful initiative to start blacktopping of all the graveled roads of Jajarkot within a year.
