Baglung. Vehicles have been facing problems in baglung section of mid-hill highway due to lack of blacktopping for the past nine years.

Out of the 13 kilometers of Bihu-Ghodabadhe section, 6 kilometers of the road is in bad condition due to which the vehicles are stuck and the passengers have to suffer. In winter, it is difficult for vehicles to cross the dusty roads due to dust and rain. Nine years ago, the contract was awarded for blacktopping the 25-km road from Baglang Bazar to Ghodabadhe.

Out of the 13 km road, 6 km has not been blacktopped yet. The contract was terminated after eight years of blacktopping. Only 10 per cent progress has been made in one year.

Driver Raman Sharma lamented that the mini-truck coming from Chitwan to Galkot to transport goods got stuck in the well. Not only trucks, dozens of cars and jeeps are stuck on the road. Out of the 140 km of the highway, blacktopping has been done elsewhere. Locals have complained that the concerned bodies are silent even though the problem of bihu section has not been resolved.

Kalpana Mishra, an engineer at the Mid-Hill Pushpalal Highway Project Office, Parbat, said that the road has been widened after the new contract. “It’s been a year since the re-contract was awarded, only 10 per cent of the work has been completed on the contract worth Rs 210 million, now the infrastructure works are going on and the road is shaky due to the rainy season,” Mishra said. ’

A re-contract of Rs 214.9 million was signed with Tamang÷Rijal Bhagwati JV on July 21, 2081, to complete the remaining infrastructure and blacktopping within two years by breaking the previous contract of Bihu-Ghodabadhe section.