ROLPA, March 5: The quality of Ghorahi-Holeri Road, or Shahid Marga, is fast deteriorating due to movement of overloaded tipper trucks carrying limestone for a Dang-based cement factory, locals say.

Asphalt coating has peeled off the road in section where the tipper trucks, which are loaded beyond the maximum prescribed capacity, ply. Over two dozen tipper trucks ferry limestone from a mine in Rolpa to Sonapur Cement Industry in Ghorahi on a daily basis. While there is an alternative industrial road for these tipper trucks, locals say the alternative road has not come into use.

Though the industry has been given permission to use the alternative road, it has been using Shahid Marga to bring raw materials. It has only been 14 months since the 31.5-kilometer road was blacktopped, but asphalt surface is peeling off.

People using the road have to face lot of hardships due to deteriorating condition of the road. 

Sheel Pacific Joint Venture Company had bagged the contract worth Rs 408 million to blacktop the road. It completed blacktopping work last year. The government arranged funds for the blacktopping through loans from Exim Bank of India. 

As per the agreement, the contractor company is responsible for the maintenance of the road for a year after completion of the project. But the contractor has not handed over the road to the government yet.

According to Shahid Marga Project Office, overloaded tipper trucks were to be blamed for the deterioration of the blacktopped road. "We have not received the project as the project has not proceeded as per the contract," Bishnu Babu Pandey, chief of Sahid Marg Road Project, told Republica. “The road could not withstand the load due to movement of overloaded tipper trucks."

He also added that the project office has written to the cement industry to stop using Shahid Marga and use the alternative road to bring raw materials.

Thakur Kandel of Sheel Pacific Joint Venture said the condition of the road deteriorated due to movement of tipper trucks carrying 40% more load than the prescribed limit. "Though the industry has made written commitment with chief district officers of Dang and Rolpa to stop use of overloaded tipper trucks, they are continuing to use overloaded trucks," he added. "Nothing will change unless legal action is initiated against the cement industry."

However, Dilip Kumar Karna, deputy general manager of Sonapur Cement, said tipper trucks bringing limestone are not owned by the company. "We have outsourced the job of bringing raw materials to transport entrepreneurs," he said, adding: "I don't think they are carrying more than the prescribed limit. They might have done that in the past, but not now."

 
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