Nepal

What Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah experienced while travelling along the Kathmandu-Kakani-Trishuli highway on August is nothing new for residents of southern Nuwakot, including Kakani, Ranipauwa, Zero Kilo.

They have been enduring the hardship caused by forevever-under-construction-looking highway for almost a decade now. More on that a little later. 

Now back to Balen Shah's controversial social media post (See video). In his August 16 video posted on his Facebook page, Shah showed the muddy road that just doesn't link the capital valley with Nuwakot but also with Banchare Dada landfill site. 

The site, located nearly 20 kilometres northwest of Kathmandu, has been serving as the dump for trash and garbage produced by the valley of nearly 5 million people residing in 21 municipalities. 

The road to Banchare Dada begins at a point called Jitpurphedi on the Kathmandu-Ranipauwa road.

The caption on the video questioned the integrity of the Chairman of Nepal Communist Party (Maoist Centre) Puspa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, who resides in a "rented" house belonging to highly ill-famed contractor Sharada Prasad Adhikari.

Eight years ago, Adhikari's Shailung Construction company was awarded a Rs 350 million contract to build Kathmand-Kakani road which actually continues on to Trishuli via Belkot.

Because contractor Adhikari is widely thought to enjoy a massive political clout within the Maoist party by virute of being Prachanda's landlord, the road project remains in limbo - and Adhikari appears to get away with it.

An angry mayor said Dahal is staying like a “bodyguard” in Adhikari’s house.

Six years too late 

Shailung Construction owned by Adhikari "won" the contract of the Balaju-Ranipauwa road section, a joint venture project between India's Aravali Infra Power Ltd (AIPL). As per the contractual agreement, Shailung Construction should have completed the construction of the 17.1-kilometre road section by June 2016. 

The Department of Roads (DOR) extended the project timeline “seven times”. 

The Balaju-Ranipauwa contract is now broken with 54 percent physical completion, as reported to DOR by the Adhikari owned-construction company. Rs. 190 million – this is more than half of a contractual commitment of 350 million rupees – have already been disbursed to the contractor to date. 

Multiple renewals

Nepali media claim Adhikari is "notorious for hoarding infrastructure contracts" and leaving them incomplete and often on the back burner. Instead of implementing the contractual agreements, Adhikari has long "rented out" a sprawling bungalow to Dahal.

DOR had renewed the contract for the seventh time before breaking and the project cost is now could [as officials say] rise by nearly three times in the new contract.

The section of road that Adhikari's company claimed as completed is actually in a dilapidated state because of the quality of construction” said Project Co-ordinator at DOR, Rohit Kumar Bisural. "Puddles are all over along the road and it cannot be used at all.”

Hardship

That means more hardship for people living in Okharpauwa, Banchare Dada and the hills of southern Nuwakot, including Kakani, Ranipauwa and Belkot. 

Had Balen travelled further towards Kakani from Jitpurphedi, he would have captured more videos of the muddy road and probably posted them all. 

Dilu Shrestha, a resident of Kakani who also owns a hotel, said the Kakani's farmers and tourism entrepreneurs are the real victims of this road mess.

“We used to get a lot of visitors, but now barely anyone. Those who still manage to get here share with us their frustrating experiences or driving through the muddy road that never gets repaired.”

“We are just holding up, there is no business and the transportation costs are often inflated because of the bad condtion of the road,” he added.

Fast-Track: A new façade 

The broken contract means the project is going nowhere anytime soon. But the department has plans for the project. 

According to Bisural, the department is planning to carry out the project as a “fast-track” project. 

“There are a lot of processes that need to be carried out before a new contract is made, which takes a lot of time. So we are trying to do that part as quickly as possible,” said Bisural. “This does not mean jumping any legal framework, but making it quick.

 “We want to save time in every step for example in re-valuation, while inviting for purposal.

“We already lost a lot of time and money, hopefully, the project will go on as planned this time.”