SURKHET, Jan 15: Nepali Congress (NC) Vice President and former Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka has monitored the development plans implemented in his constituency, Surkhet-1. Khadka, a member of the House of Representatives, monitored the Road Bridge and Mehalkuna Hospital.
Khadka inspected the road bridge under construction over the Bheri River connecting Jahre in Bheriganga municipality and Gumi in Gurbhakot municipality. Khadka directed the construction company to complete the construction of the bridge within the stipulated time.
Ashish Chandra and Bashanta Company has received the contract for the bridge being built over the Bheri River. Narayan Shrestha, site engineer of the company, said that the work is being done by completing the construction before the deadline. "There is a deadline to complete the construction of the bridge by the end of June," said Shrestha. He added, "We have completed 80 percent of the work, and vehicles will be able to cross the bridge by June."
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The company received the contract of the bridge for Rs 160 million so as to complete the construction in four years. During the bridge inspection, Khadka also inquired about the access road from the bridge to the main road.
Similarly, Khadka has also monitored Mehalkuna Hospital. During the monitoring, Khadka stated that the construction work of the 50-bed building of the hospital was slow and instructed to break the contract and start a new process. After being elected as a member of the House of Representatives, Khadka, who visited his constituency for the third time, instructed the Federal Project Implementing Unit to go through a new process and complete the construction of the hospital as soon as possible.
At Khadka's own initiative, Mehalkuna Hospital was upgraded to 50 beds in 2016. "The construction of a 50-bed hospital building has been started targeting the beneficiaries of Rukum, Jajarkot, Salyan, Dolpa and other districts along with East Surkhet," he said.
Ramakrishna Acharya, engineer at the Federal Project Implementing Unit, said that the building construction work did not speed up despite repeated deadlines. "During the construction period, the construction company brings in some workers and they disappear again within a few days," he said.
The contract for the construction of a 50-bed Mehalkuna Hospital was taken by Lohani Construction for Rs 270 million. Although the work was to be completed by the end of July 2020 as per the contract, the building construction work has not been completed yet.
