Vehicles have started to ply again along the Beni-Jomsom road after the Division Road Office of Pokhara repaired the damaged road section this week. [break]
Umesh Bindu Shrestha, Chief of the Road Division Office, said that they had to work for almost two weeks to repair the damaged road section temporarily.
“Although we have repaired the damaged road only temporarily, vehicles can easily pass through,” said Shrestha. It is estimated that the permanent repair works of the damaged road section require five months and cost Rs 20 million. “Permanent repair works are possible only when the government brings a full budget,” he said.
Transport service had come to a grinding halt along the Beni-Jomsom road after a 150-meters-long section of the road was completely washed away by floods in July this year. The Road Division Office failed to begin repair works immediately partly because the damaged road section was inundated with water until recently. Lack of budget also contributed to the delay in beginning the repair works.
The road division office is now in a debt of Rs 2.5 million after repairing the damaged road. “We had already used up our budget for repairing other roads,” said a road engineer.
When the road was blocked, farmers in Mustang district had faced difficulties in transporting their apples to the market. Traders would have to pay more for transporting apples as they had to use two vehicles along the Mustang-Jomsom road besides hiring porters to carry the apples through the damaged road section. Apple prices had also gone up by Rs 3-40 per kg then.
“Local porters fleeced us by taking advantage of the situation,” said an apple trader. “As we had no other options, we had to pay whatever they demanded. This obviously inflated the transport cost and prices went up.”
According to him, apples worth millions of rupees rotted in Mustang as they failed to transport them. “That the road is open now, we can easily transport apples,” he said. “Apple prices will also go down.”
Around 4,000 metric tons of apples have been produced this year in Mustang district. With the Beni-Jomsom road open now, local apple farmers are quite elated now.
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