The four-month Tarai banda and three-month Indian embargo have taken a heavy toll on development activities in the Eastern Region. Most of the projects have been severely affected by fuel crisis and shortage construction materials.

Works on the road from Sunsari’s Nadaha to Saptari’s Rupnagar through Chatara bridge in Udayapur has come to a complete halt. The construction of the road, seen as an alternative to a section of the East-West Highway that was swept away by Koshi floods in 2008, had begun last year.

The 56km road project, which has received a financing of Rs2.34 billion from Asian Development Bank, is reeling under the shortage of fuel, cement and steel.  

“Construction works have stopped due to the blockade and Madhes movement,” said Chhatra Bahadur Aryal, project manager of Kalika Construction, contractor of the project. “Only 6 percent of the works has been completed so far against our target to complete 12 percent by this time.”

Likewise, construction works on the Gaighat-Diktel road, which began two decades ago, have stopped. Track opening of the Gaighat-Phoksingtar section has completed, but blacktopping works have been halted due to the shortage of sand and aggregates and petroleum. Late Prime Minister Manamohan Adhikari had inaugurated the construction in 1995.

Development works worth Rs250 million being undertaken by the Urban Development and Building Division Office in Okhaldhunga too have ground to a halt. Works on nine health posts in Rampur, Chyanam, Phediguth, Manebhanjyang, Shrichaur, Phulbari and Mulkharka have been halted completely.

“There is a shortage of construction materials. Even if available, they are very expensive. So it has been difficult to continue the works,” said Suwas Basnet, chief of the Urban Development and Building Division Office. “We cannot force the contractor to continue with the works in such a situation.”

Development works being undertaken by the District Development Committee and consumer committees have also been badly affected. “Some of the committees have not come to sign agreements,” said Madhav Bhattarai, chief of the District Technical Office.

Similar is the situation in Sankhuwasabha. Construction works on Khadbari-Kimathanka road has stopped due to fuel shortage. It is a part of the Koshi Highway, a national-pride project. “The construction work has stopped for the last three months,” said Hari Kumar Pokharel, chief of the project. The government had planned to complete the road in the next two years.

Ramesh Adhikari, a local contractor, said over dozen development projects in the district have been affected. In Dharan, the drinking water project has been running behind the schedule as pipes have yet to arrive from Kolkata, India. Raju Pokharel, an engineer at Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City, said only 70 trucks (40 percent) of the ordered pipes ordered from India’s Tata company have arrived so far.

In Bhojpur, construction work on the district hospital has been halted for the last three months due to the shortage of construction materials. Besides, the black-topping of 66km Leguwa-Bhojpur Naradmuni Thulung Marga and expansion of 42km Deurali-Chakhewa section of Bhojpur-Diktel have been stalled.

In Siraha, construction of a bride at Mainabatti section of the Sukhupur auxiliary road has yet to be started although the project should have been completed

by this fiscal year-end. District Technical Office chief Raj Kumar Goit said the cost of the project could go up as the works have not moved ahead.

(Reporting by Dilliram Khatiwada, Kumbharaj Rai, Dipendra Shakya, Pradeep Menyagbo, Shaiman Rai, Dev Narayan Sah and Bed Raj Poudel)