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Kathmandu,Thursday April 27, 2000 Baishakh 15, 2057.
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Highway not black-topped even after 15 yrs
By Lila Ballav Ghimire
DHANKUTA, April 26 - Fifteen
years have passed since the 26-kilometre-long Hile-Basantpur highway was constructed but
it is yet to be black-topped.
Hile lies at ward No 1 of
Dhankuta district while Basantpur lies in Tehrathum district. The highway extends up to
the headquarters of Tehrathum district on the one hand, while on the other, it extends
further to the headquarters of Sankhuwasabha district via Budhe Sansare.
More than 50 passenger
transports have been plying on this rough road for the last 15 years apart from trucks
carrying goods. Buses, trucks and taxies have been plying up to the district headquarters
daily since last year. However, they stop going up to the district headquarters
immediately after the beginning of the rainy season. This has adversely affected thousands
of local passengers. That is why the prices of consumer goods have gone up suddenly in
Basantpur of Tehrathum district.
Similarly, vehicles going to the
headquarters of Sankhuwasabha district via Budhe Sansare have stopped plying after the
road has been damaged and people have been compelled to walk for nine hours to reach the
district headquarters.
Prices of goods also go up when
buses and trucks cannot ply up to the headquarters of Tehrathum district. They cannot go
beyond Basantpur during the rainy season.
The highway bifurcates to
headqurters of Sankhuwasabha and Tehrathum districts only after it reaches Basantpur.
Therefore black-topping of this important road has been the election issue in different
elections, but Members of Parliament representing these areas have not raised the issue in
the parliament after their victory in the polls. They only deceive the voters, said Member
of Dhankuta Tarun Dal and resident of Teliya VDC Post Prasad Ojha.
Roads Office invites every year
for gravelling of Hile-Basantpur highway. The highway is gravelled every year but it
returns to its old shape after a week of gravelling. Together, the contractor and the
engineer can do anything. We have not seen the improvement of the road, said Krishna
Guragain of Bhirgaon.
The transport entrepreneurs have
also been demanding time and again with extreme measures like transport stoppage, but the
agencies concerned have turned a deaf ear to such demands and bad road is the reason of
many accidents, transport entrepreneur Madan Dahal said.
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