Sluggish construction of Trauma Centre in Dang leaves Centre in limbo

Dang: The construction of provincial level Trauma Centre at Lamahi of Dang that started since 2021 has achieved dismal progress. The project has achieved only 30 per cent physical progress so far.

The sluggish construction of the Centre has left it in limbo. Deemed to be the pride project of the Lumbini Province, the slow-paced construction has mocked at provincial government as well.

While some projects are stalled in lack of budget, some projects are taking forever to be materialized despite the availability of the budget. The Lumbini Province government had allocated the budget over Rs 190 million finding Lamahi suitable for the construction of the Centre given its proximity with the East-West Highway, said Kul Bahadur KC, former mayor of Lamahi Municipality.

“As we assumed our office as people’s representatives, we came to learn that the chosen land was under the local government. We shifted a cooperative located at that place and provided the land for the Centre because the provincial government informed us about its requirement,” shared former mayor KC.

According to him, the proposed site is a public land. There were some trees. A dispute had erupted when the cooperative asked by the Lamahi Municipality in writing initially turned out to be reluctant to shift elsewhere.

“The cooperative was eventually shifted. Some physical infrastructures in that public land were dismantled which also took some time,” narrated KC, adding that the delay on the part of the Forest Office to clear trees had further botched up the construction process.

Similarly, Debaka Belbase, former deputy mayor of Lamahi Municipality, recalled that the federal government had expressed its interest to build a normal Trauma Centre at Lamahi area.

Construction process made headway after the provincial government decided to build a state-of-art provincial level Trauma Centre and coordinated efforts with the local level. It is not known when the Trauma Centre construction works would achieve cent per cent progress. Budget for the Centre was allocated during the leadership of Shankar Pokharel in the province.

 Since then, there have been four Chief Ministers in the province altogether. Among them, current Chief Minister Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary and former Chief Minister Pokharel are from Dang district.

However, the contractor company Lama GSH JV Kathmandu’s representatives Dilip Lama explained that construction materials could not be sent to construction site due to COVID-19 pandemic that broke out immediately after signing the contract for construction. “The pandemic affected the construction process at that time. Later dismantling of the buildings at the proposed site took time and there was delay due to water coming out while digging the land for the construction of foundation,” he described.

According to the contract, the deadline for the construction of Trauma Centre is July 8 this year, informed Ananta Kumar Dev, Officiating Chief of the Urban Development and Building Office, Dang. Dev added process to extend deadline for the construction was underway after the construction company showed a number of reasons for not being able to deliver the project on time. The Urban Development and Building Office in Dang is regulating the under-construction Trauma Centre, it was said.