GORKHA, July 31: The blacktopping of a 30-kilometer stretch of a road in Bapark has come to a standstill as the road project office scrapped the agreement with the contractor, Nagarjun/Trishuli JV, citing extreme negligence in work. The stretch covers one-fourth of the Barhakilo–Barpak road.
"The contract was worth Rs 105.9 million and Rs 645,000 had been released," said Gyanmani Upadhyay, an officer at the accounts section of the 'Chhewetar Bhaluswara Barpak Road Project' which has been handling the construction works. "But massive negligence was found in the work. So, the contract for the road project was scrapped," he added.
The project office canceled the contract by publishing a public notice recently. According to the notice, the blacktopping of the road has not been completed and this is sure to affect the entire project.
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"They pushed the project deadline several times. And yet the work is nowhere near completion," said Upadhyay, "They could not complete the blacktopping of a 30-km stretch even in five years."
The contract was signed in June 2014 and the deadline was Dec 2015. After this deadline was not met, a second deadline was extended for a year. However, since the work was left undone, three more deadlines were set.
"Now not just the project has been canceled but the contractor has to pay fines for the loss too," Upadhyay stressed.
According to Upadhyay, the contractor did not come in contact even though several notices were issued. In the fields, workers were nowhere to be seen since long. "Neither were there any workers, nor any construction equipment was seen anywhere. Even after we sent notices four times, there was no response from the contractor," he said.
The incomplete road project has left the locals tense who were waiting for the road to be blacktopped. Jit Bahadur Ghale of Barpak stated that the locals had thought the road would be built some day. "But it's not sure now. They have scrapped the contract with contractor as we have heard," he stated.
Locals are not impressed by the action of the authorities. On the one hand, there was no proper follow-up, or else, the contractor would have either worked according to the contract or the project would have been canceled much earlier, they argue. "Even though the authorities are now stating that the contractor was useless, what were they doing for so long? Had the authorities followed up with the contractor from time to time, wouldn't we get a nice road by now?" he questioned.
