Development projects remain limited to rhetoric

By Bikash Adhikari,Nawalparasi (West), Feb. 22: Candidates are vying for the upcoming House of Representatives (HoR) election in Constituency No. 1 of Nawalparasi, pledging popular commitments such as infrastructure development, job creation, and agricultural advancement. However, the condition of the very roads they use daily to canvass for votes appears to mock their promises.

The road section linking Narayanchowk in Bardaghat Municipality to the religious site in Triveni, which was meant to be completed within two years, remains unfinished even after six years. Candidates travel daily along this stretch from Bardaghat to Susta to solicit votes.

As in the previous election, nearly all candidates have once again included in their manifestos a commitment to facilitate completion of the Postal Highway expansion. Yet anyone travelling along the dusty and potholed road expresses frustration towards political leaders.

Protesting delays in the road’s construction, Umesh Chandra Yadav, Chair of Pratappur Rural Municipality, even staged a hunger strike last year. He ended the strike the very next day after receiving assurances that construction would begin immediately.

However, even the road section in front of the Pratappur Rural Municipality office remains incomplete. The contractor blacktopped approximately one kilometre of road in the Semari market area, but has since failed to accelerate the work.

When blacktopping began, there was intense competition among elected representatives to claim credit. Binod Chaudhary, who won the 2022 election from the area, has repeatedly pledged to complete the project, yet the road expansion has not gained momentum.

Now back in the race with aspirations of re-election, Chaudhary faces the deteriorating state of the road as a significant challenge. Santosh Pathak, a local resident of Susta, complained that elected representatives have made no meaningful effort to complete the project.

“Although the road becomes an election agenda for political parties, no real work gets done. In the past, leaders competed to take credit when bulldozers arrived, but when progress stalled, they quietly stepped back. People are disillusioned,” Pathak said.

The project deadline, extended four times, has now been pushed to mid-April this year, yet there are no clear signs of completion. Locals, who endure daily hardship from dust and mud, now want a representative who will finally finish the abandoned road in front of their homes.

The section is being constructed under the federal government’s Postal Highway Project Office in Kapilvastu. In six years, only 45 per cent of the work has been completed. Bajra Mahalaxmi JV was awarded the contract for Rs. 490 million to expand the road.

The Postal Highway Project Office in Kapilvastu said that it has repeatedly urged the contractor to complete all three sections of the project.