Multi-route suspension bridge pulling tourists

By Ramesh Bishwokarma

Gulmi, oct.1: A recently constructed three-mouthed suspension bridge built over the Kaligandaki River in Gulmi has become a centre of attraction for tourists. 

The traffic of domestic tourists has started to increase in the three-way suspension bridge constructed at the confluence of Gulmi, Palpa and Syangja. 

The bridge connects Rurukshetra Rural Municipality-1 Ridi in Gulmi, Tansen Municipality-14, Argali in Palpa and Kaligandki Rural Municipality-1 Chandibhanjayang in Syangja. People are visiting from many places to see this bridge and take a ride on it. The Rurukshetra area is one of the four dhams (four abodes) in Nepal.

Amar Prasad Koirala of Kaligandaki Rural Municipality-1, Syangja said that the main market of the locals of three districts is Ridi and the compulsion to take risky journeys has come to an end with the construction of the bridge.

A column with a 9-metre running sphere has been constructed in the middle of the Kaligandaki River, the point to go to the three districts. A 177-metre-long suspension bridge has been constructed on all three sides to reach three districts from a 25-metre-high view tower, a pillar built in the middle of the bridge. 

Karanjit Burma, a construction businessperson, informed that the construction work is in the final stage as the work of lattice, solar light and stairs have been completed.

Burma said construction work on the bridge was completed over eight years period at Rs. 98.8 million. The bridge is now awaiting inauguration. This bridge is said to be the first three-mouthed bridge in Asia and New Bato Ruvina Mana JV Company granted the contract to construct it.

The leader of the Nepali Congress and a member of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Chandra Bhandari, and the then Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal, Lilamani Paudel, had laid the foundation stone of the bridge.

Dr. Bhandari said that they were thinking of continuing to attract tourists through a model of Asia, built on their own initiative. He claimed that, "We have built a three-pronged model bridge for the first time in the Asian continent." 

He said that not only himself but also the then Chief Secretary Paudel contributed to the construction of the bridge.