By Arjun Kafle
Syangja, July 15: A motorable bridge over Sahare Khola, which was left in limbo by the contracting company, is finally complete. After the company’s constant failure to show any tangible progress, the project responsibility was handed over to an individual contractor from Putalibzaar.
Disappointed by the construction company’s lack of initiative and negligence, Road Division Office Pokhara has taken stern action against the concerned party.
Back in May 22, 2009, GSN Construction Services Pokhara-17 entered a contract to build the bridge over Sahare Khola in the confluence of Aandikhola Rural Municipality-1 and Arjun Chaupari-3 within a year-and-a-half at an estimated cost of Rs. 37 million. Unfortunately, the construction work never gained any momentum in all these years.
Due to GSN’s utter dereliction of duty, the Putalibazaar-based individual contractor took over the construction project last year in November to complete the bridge by the first week of July. “I was able to complete the work in eight months, and within the stipulated time,” claimed the contractor. The recently-completed single-span bridge is 25-metres-long and nine-and-a-half-metres-wide.
Locals are ecstatic to finally see the bridge come into fruition. “For a long time, mobility has been a problem here, especially during the monsoon. The raging Sahare Khola, and the subsequent floods have always posed problems for us,” informed Lok Prasad Chapagain of Ramche, Aandhikhola-1.
The construction of the bridge has come as a beacon of hope for thousands of locals of Aandhikhola-1, Arjun Chaupari Ward No. 3, 4, 5, 6 and parts of Parbat.