Roads with poles in middle go viral in Gorkha

By Narendra Dhakal,Gorkha, Feb. 22: Pictures of two roads constructed in Gorkha Municipality have gone viral now. Pictures of the electric poles standing in the middle of the tarred and graveled road have heated up social media.

The road at Pokharathok in Ward No. 6 is ready for blacktopping, while that in Chhewetar Ward No. 10 has already been blacktopped.

“Despite our repeated requests, this problem happened after the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) did not move the poles,” Chairman of Ward No. 10 Pradeep Kunwar said, “Not only me, but the mayor and deputy mayor also requested to remove the poles in both the road sections. We have also sent a letter to the NEA,” he said.

Pokharathok Ward Chairman Rajendra Kumar Joshi said that since the road has yet to be blacktopped in the area, they are coordinating with NEA. The plan was to build a road bypassing the pole, but that didn’t happen.

According to Er. Prakash Dhakal, the problem surfaced due to a lack of coordination between the NEA, the consumer’s committee and the municipality, but now they have stopped the work so that it could be resumed after coordinating with concerned authorities.

But when the problem was noticed, the municipality took the necessary steps for coordination and initiation to solve it, he said.

The Electricity Authority of Gorkha has claimed that the main responsibility for moving electricity poles lies with the municipality. Chiz Bahadur Gurung, 

Head of Electricity Distribution Center Gorkha, informed that since there is no budget for pole relocation, the NEA will help if the local level coordinates. “I have recently come to the district, and I have received preliminary information that this happened due to lack of coordination in time,” he said, “We will solve the problem by coordinating with each other.”

He said that there is an arrangement that 70 per cent of the cost of moving the pole will be borne by the local level and the remaining 30 per cent by the NEA. According to the electricity authority, the budget and programme will come only after filling out the form and sending it to the centre according to the procedure.