To make matters worse, the already narrow road has grown slimmer due to haphazardly dumped construction materials, and motorbikes and cars parked carelessly along the road, which leads to traffic snarls almost on a daily basis.The problem is growing with each passing day as the Department of Roads (DoR) fails to speed up the road expansion work.
"Having to walk this road everyday really frustrates me. I'm sure everybody around here feels the same way," said Sunita, a street vendor at Bagbazaar. "The road condition gets worse after it rains," she added.
Businesses along the stretch, which includes boutiques, general stores, jewelers, eateries, among others, say that the already dwindling number of customers visiting their shops drops sharply when the road turns muddy after a rainfall.
Baagbazar-Putalisadak road is one of the busiest stretches in the capital.
The government is planning to expand the road from the existing 6 meters to 10 meters, with a 2 meters footpath on both sides, according to DoR.
However, the delay in road construction has meant nothing but hardship for commuters for the last one-and-a-half years.
"Most of the problems will be addressed as soon as blacktopping of the road is completed. If it does not rain in the coming days, it won't take long to complete the blacktopping," claimed Prabhat Kumar Jha, chief of the Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project (KVRIP).
"Had there been no earthquake, the construction would have been completed by now," he added.
According to him, the Project Implementation Directorate (PID) of the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) has completed installation of pipelines for Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) and sewerage system along the road.
Roshan Shrestha, who was passing through Bag Bazaar on his bike, vented his frustrations saying, "Almost every development project run by the government runs at snail's pace," he said. "It would be better if the road construction works are done at night. In this way, commuters would not have to face unnecessary traffic jams," he added.
Putalisadak-Bag Bazaar is not the only road section where people have been facing trouble due to delayed construction. Road stretches at Sinamangal, Battisputali, Sorhakhutte, Asan, Thahiti and Balkot, among other areas, are in terrible shape.
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