DHARAN, Nov 10: It was 17 years ago when Om Bhakta Mainali, a businessman based in Udaypur, Gaighat decided to ply his vehicle through the rough Gaighat - Rampur road track for the first time. Every time he would take the route he would dream of the bumpy track developing into a fine blacktopped road someday and opening new avenues of development in his locality. Years passed by, but this dream did not come true.
Today, thanks to the ongoing agitation and unrest in the Madhesh, hitting the transportation among other sectors, development of an alternative route has become the talk of the town. Due to the disturbance in the East - West highway for the past three months, the Udaypur-Gaighat alternative route has drawn attention of the authority along with transport entrepreneurs.
Triyuga bridge starts to collapse
"It has become 17 years since I have been driving along this road. The condition of the road is just as it was, poor and rough. Nobody ever thought of polishing it," said Mainali. "However, now, due to the agitation and need of an alternative route, it has drawn attention of many," he added.
According to Mainali, who is also general secretary of the Himali Yatatayat Transport Entrepreneur Association, locals have become excited over the possibility of the changes in the road as even government has shown interest on the issue. Locals had high hopes of changes after concrete bridges were built over Saptakoshi River in Mainamani area and in Chatara, and those viewed as alternative of Koshi barrage. "The new bridges have been constructed by investing millions of rupees. They could be best utilized only by upgrading conditions of the linked roads," Mainali said.
President of the association Prem Kumar Rai stated that the government's attention should have been grabbed by the rough route much earlier. "The route has remained neglected for years despite having great possibility of being an alternative to the long east west highway route. If the track had been given due importance and constructed duly, many people would have benefited in different ways by now," he said.
Rai, however, expressed concerns that even the changes of upgrading of the route may once again remain in shadow if the agitation in Madhes comes to end. "It is due to the risk factors in some parts of the highway, people are thinking of this alternative now. Even the authority is under pressure to upgrade the route. Once things go normal in the region, this may not be of as much priority as it seems to be now," Rai said.
People in Udaypur are happy over the news that the department of road has shown interest to upgrade the road condition from Dharan to Udaypur. A joint team of transport entrepreneurs along with officials from the Department of Roads had made field visits in the area to inspect the route.
Regional Director of DoR Shiva Hari Sapkota among other concerned officials had inspected the several road tracks including the Gaighat - Rampur route on Sunday. Sapkota stated that there is grand plan to upgrade the discussed roads very soon. "The road department is already pushing ahead with the project. All the alternative routes or shout cuts would be upgraded," he said.
"The government seems to have taken the need to upgrade the alternative routes quite seriously now. After field visits time and again, some actions have also been taken. Similarly, syndication of some groups in some routes has also been intervened," said Saroj Shrestha, President of FNCCI in Sunsari. "People are indeed very excited about the Gaighat - Rampur route. Small vehicles have been plying on the route for several years now. Upgrading of the track would definitely position it as the number one road in eastern region," he added.
