Mountains. The cold store under construction at Deupur of Modi Rural Municipality-2 has remained incomplete for the past nine years.

The construction of the cold storage that was started in the fiscal year 2073÷74 at the cost of Rs 50 million has not been completed. The construction of a cooling house was started to keep the off-season fruits and vegetables fresh. It has been in limbo due to lack of adequate budget from the government.

The cold storage that was being constructed on the land owned by locals Khem Bahadur Hamal and Buddhi Kumari Hamal is still incomplete. Although the one-storey building was constructed with the agreement to construct the cold storage on the agreement to pay the land in the name of the Hamal couple, the incomplete structure is now dilapidated.

The farmers are upset that they have not been able to complete the construction of a cooling center in their own backyard. In the presence of locals Prem Bahadur Hamal, Man Bahadur Poudel and Manoj Kumar Sharma, Hamal had agreed to buy the land for Rs 1.3 million.

According to Ganga Timilsina, chairperson of the Cold House Construction Committee, an agreement was made to allocate Rs 5 million in the first year, but the amount was not more than Rs 24 lakh. “The budget was supposed to come gradually. We started the work after allocating Rs 24 lakh,” he said.

As per the plan, the construction of the 2-storey cooling center with a capacity of 50 tons was targeted to be completed within a year. The then ward chair of Modi rural municipality-2, Bikas Timilsina, said that the rural municipality, province and centre had requested the rural municipality, province and centre for the construction of a cooling center, but no action has been paid to them. He said that although the ward had allocated Rs 15 lakh for land management, the work could not move ahead due to lack of agreement on land purchase.

Modi’s Deupur is an orange pocket area. Orange worth more than four crore rupees is produced here every year. Kyng and Lespar are fertile land for potato production. Potato and vegetable seeds are sold in the local market as well as in the district headquarters Kushma and Pokhara.