Road access changes peoples’ life in Lulang Village

By Thakur Prasad Acharya,Myagdi, May 4: Dhobi BK, 77-year-old woman of Lulang, a village in Ward No. 2 of Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality in Myagdi district, is happy to see vehicles ply the road in front of her house.

According to BK, she never thought it would be so easy to buy goods in the village.

“It was not Butwal at that time, we called it ‘Batauli’. It was the market where we reached to buy goods on foot. The two-way travel used to take 22 days,” BK recalls her youthful and adult days.

BK said that she had never thought of seeing a vehicle dropping goods at her doorsteps while she was alive.

 “Seeing the vehicles in my own village now is like a dream come true,” she added.

Until late, the villagers had to travel for two hours on foot to reach the rural municipality centre to buy groceries and other goods. 

Meanwhile, after the road connected Lulang village to the rural municipality centre and further, peoples’ life has changed there. 

“The villagers have bought vehicles. Now, they drop goods at our doorsteps as soon as we give them a call,” said Gaushwara BK, a local.

“The change is exciting. Economic activities have increased and so have job opportunities. Daily goods are also available at cheaper rates due to easy means of transport,” said Aak Prasad BK, ward chairman of Ward No. 2 of Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality.

BK also informed that the villagers of Gurja, a village in Ward No. 1 of Dhaulagiri, also benefitted from the road as they started arriving in Lulang to buy goods, such as groceries and clothes.

“The rural municipality prioritised road construction to Lulang and allocated the required budget. The road has opened the gates of development for the village,” said ward chairman BK.

The provincial government also supported the construction of the road from Muna to Lulang. 

Many youths have also started returning from abroad with an aim to do something in the village after it got connected with the road network. 

“I bought a Bolero jeep and started using it as public transport in the village. I utilised the road access to our village,” said Bhakta Sinkija Pun Magar, a Lulang villager who had returned after staying abroad for 19 years.

Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality’s vice chairman Resham Pun Magar said that the local level planned to invest further in the road to make it suitable to use throughout the year.