Sigas in Baitadi still without motorable road

By Gokarna Dayal,Baitadi, Sept. 18: Chwangad, Baitadi, the birthplace of 86-year-old Nayan Singh, a retired aircraft engineer who served in Nepal’s aviation sector for 30 years, still has no access to the road.  

Due to the lack of roads, locals must walk through Deura in Bajhang and Navadurga Rural Municipality in Dadeldhura to reach the district headquarters.  

Sigas Rural Municipality, part of Chwangad, is the largest area in Baitadi district, but it is yet not connected to the road network. Locals from Ward Nos. 3, 4, and 5 travel to the district headquarters via Dadeldhura, while residents of Ward Nos. 6, 7, and 8 have to walk four hours to Deura in Bajhang before reaching the headquarters.

Recalling his experience of walking to Uttarakhand, India, 70 years ago for studies, Engineer Singh shared that the government should work to connect such remote villages to the road network. “Days were very tough 70 years ago. There were no roads then and there are still none now. When we went to study, we carried food supplies to Pithoragarh, India,” he said.

He added, “The situation in the village is still the same. The only difference is that in our time, we walked to India for education while today, students can study at the district headquarters. However, the footpaths have not changed, and the hardships of Sigash locals reflect the indifference of the state.”

To this day, no technical education institution has been established in the rural municipality. Students must carry food supplies and walk for a whole day to reach Birendra Secondary School at the district headquarters for technical studies.

Ghana Shyam Dhami, a local, said, "Students from the village travel to the district headquarters or other cities in Nepal to study technical subjects such as computer science, agricultural technology and civil engineering."

Only nine Kilometres in 30 years

Around 30 years ago, the District Development Committee inaugurated the road to Sigas Rural Municipality-2 on December 12, 1995. However, the road has not extended beyond that point. Of the 50 kilometres of the Ganjari-Thalakanda-Dhungad section of the Dudhila Khan-Gajari road, only nine kilometres have been built so far.

The local government had started constructing the Sinyakhet-Garje road from Thata of Navdurga Rural Municipality, Dadeldhura, to connect to the rural municipality centre, but landslides have rendered it impassable. Locals are still forced to carry daily necessities on foot.

According to Dhana Dhami, Vice Chairperson of the rural municipality, locals from Ward Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 must walk a full day to reach the Agricultural Development Bank in Ganjari to collect their social security benefits. While other rural municipalities in the district are connected to the road network, Sigas remains isolated.

“I also have to walk a full day to reach the rural municipality centre to serve the people. We do not have the resources to build a major road on our own. Neither the federal nor the provincial government prioritises us. What can we do?” she said.

While other roads in the district, like the Patan-Pancheswor road and the Sillegada road, have already been blacktopped, the Ganjari road in Chwangad remains incomplete. Although the provincial government has opened a track from Ganjari to Ghauladi, there is still no road to the rural municipality centre, forcing locals from Ward Nos. 1 and 2 to walk a full day.

Witnessing the dire state of development in Chwangad, Karn Singh Dhami from Ward No. 1 of Sigas Rural Municipality, said, “The remote Chwangad area has been neglected in terms of development. It is not just roads, we face the same problems with electricity, drinking water and irrigation. We still rely on kerosene lamps for light, and without vehicles, we carry heavy loads on our backs for our livelihoods.”

The condition of the roads in Bindrawan, Jukepani, Besara, Irana and Sigas of Ward No. 1, remains similarly poor. Despite efforts by the District Development Committee to build the six-kilometre Bindrawan-Jukepani-Besra road more than a decade and a half ago, it is yet to be upgraded.

Air rescue for pregnant women

Due to the lack of roads and ambulance services, most pregnant women in Sigas Rural Municipality have to be airlifted to well-equipped hospitals for childbirth. Last year, Bindu Dhami, 20, who could not give birth at the Thalakanda Health Post in Ward No. 6, was airlifted to the Provincial Hospital in Surkhet, Karnali Province. 

Although her life was saved by the air rescue programme for pregnant women at risk under the President’s Women’s Upliftment Programme, her newborn did not survive.