According to the contractors, as many as 23 quarries in Chapagaun, Nallu and Lele of Lalitpur district have been closed down by the District Development Committee (DDC) of Lalitpur in the last one month, which they say prevented them from completing their work in time. [break]
“The Lalitpur-based mining sites are the major source of pebbles and sand that we need for road construction,” said a contractor, unwilling to be named. “Today, we do not have sufficient raw materials to reconstruct the roads as all mines are closed.”
“It is very difficult for our contractors to find pebbles for the road construction as the major sources of pebbles and sands have been closed for the last one month,” said Shyam Kharel, head of the Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project.
“Sands and pebbles from these mine sites are of best quality,” said Kharel. “Contractors prefer sand and pebbles from the stone and sands mine sites of Lalitpur district.”
According to him, the road construction of the Kathmandu Valley is being hampered by the closing of such mining sites. The contractors are not able to provide raw materials and they have no alternatives sources. There are other mines at Melamchi and Panauti but they are very far and the raw materials from those sites have not been tested yet.
“Contractors are not willing to use raw material from those places as often they are not of good quality,” said Kharel. “Those materials should be tested before they are used.”
The pathetic condition of the roads in the Kathmandu Valley is getting worse day by day. The frequent rainfall deteriorates the situation further.
“Contractors want us to force the DDC to open the mining sites but we refused to help them in the matter,” said Gopal Khadka, chief of the Kathmandu Road Division at the Department of Road (DoR). “It is the contractors´ responsibility to sourcing raw materials at any cost.”
According to DDC, Lalitpur, the controversy surrounding the illegal mining and supply of stones was the reason why they decided to close the mining sites. Also, the mines do not meet mining standards set by the government.
“We will issue new license only for the mining contractors who meet the standard set by the government,” said Shashi Sekhar Shrestha CDO of Lalitpur.
Although several meetings have been held between DDC officials, local groups of people and the contractors, no dates have been fixed for opening the mining sites.
According to the contractor, they have to pay tax to the DDC and to other local groups as well. Those groups are illegally collecting money from the contractors. And if mining contractors refuse to pay them money, they prevent contractors from extracting raw material from the mining sites.
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