Construction of industrial gram in Raghuganga halted

By Thakur Prasad Acharya,Myagdi (Beni) Aug. 11: An under-construction industrial gram in Dimmarchaur of Raghuganga Rural Municipality-2 Bhagawati of Myagdi has been stopped due to lack of budget. 

The construction of the industrial village has halted after the federal government stopped the flow of budget. The construction of an industrial village was started with the aim of promoting small and domestic industries based on local raw materials. Bhaba Bahadur Bhandari, chairman of the Rural Municipality, said that although budget was sent for the construction of the industrial village in the fiscal year 2022/23, there was a problem in the construction in subsequent years after the government did not allocate budget for the project.

He said that only the initial phase infrastructure construction of the industrial village was done with Rs. 10 million allocated by the federal government in the fiscal year 2022/23. The government has not allocated the budget for the current fiscal year, he said. 

"We have built some structures through contracts with the budget sent for the first year. We requested a project plan by preparing a detailed project report (DPR) worth Rs. 135.6 million for the physical infrastructure construction of the industrial gram.  Due to the non-continuity of the budget, the industrial village construction plan was stalled. It has become a situation of wasting state investment.”

Kamal Chokhyal, chief of infrastructure branch of the rural municipality, said that Muktinath Garden Construction Service, which signed a contract with the rural municipality on July 5, 2023, built a 1.5-kilometre access road, three entrance gates and 311-metre perimeter wall with mesh.

A 10-metre-wide unpaved road has been constructed within the industrial village spread over an area of 35 ropanis of land. According to Chokhyal, the company that signed the contract for Rs. 6.89 million was unable to do all the work according to the contract, so only Rs. 6.09 million was paid.

Chief Administrative Officer of Raghuganga Rural Municipality Chet Narayan Bhandari said that the construction of the industrial village had to be stopped as no additional budget had been received.  He said that despite requesting for the budget from the federal government, there was no response and budget allocation for the industrial village construction.