By Our Correspondent
Nawalparasi, July 8: With a steamer coming into operation in the mighty Narayani River, travel to Susta, a village across the waterway, has now become easy.
Earlier, people in the locality marred by land encroachment by India were forced to cross the wide and risky current of the river using a normal wooden boat.
Susta is surrounded by the Narayani River from three sides and India at one side. People in the village have to either cross the river, also known as Gandak in India, to reach the main land in Nepal or use the Indian road for the travel. The motorboat service was launched in January this year.
“It has been a great relief to us and we can now cross the river safely,” said Kamal Harijan, a local from Ward no. 5 of Susta Rural Municipality.
According to him, Ram Awatar Baniyan of Paklihawa of the municipality has introduced the steamer service which has come as a big relief to the people there.
The large motorboat can carry up to 43 tonnes of goods at a time and has facilitated in ferrying motorcycles, bicycles and agricultural produces like sugarcane and mustard. The width of the Narayani reaches about 1.5 kilometre during monsoon.