Construction of bridge over Kaliyakhola rivulet along Hulaki Road in limbo

Rajbiraj (Saptari), Oct 14: The construction of a bridge over the Kaliyakhola rivulet at Banauli, Agnisaier Krishna Sawaran rural municipality-4 in Saptari district is in limbo.

The bridge is a part of the Hulaki Road and connects Rajbiraj with Kanchanpur. Although the construction of the bridge was started 10 years back it is still not complete, thereby creating great deal of inconvenience to the locals. The Lama Bagmati Construction Service was awarded with the contract for constructing the bridge. Although the contractor company started construction works in 2014, the pace of construction is so sluggish that the bridge is not yet completed. Due to lack of a bridge over the Kaliyakhola at this place, hundreds of vehicles and the locals are compelled to cross the rivulet wading through the river to get to the other side, a local Pintu Yadav complained.

He said that thousands of people are making risky travel crossing the rivulet. It is the bridge that also connects Rajbiraj, the district headquarters of Saptari. Budhilal Aragariya Yadav of Tirahut rural municipality-3 said the rivulet is mostly flooded during the monsoon, disrupting the transport and travel, as there is no bridge. “Four-wheel and two-wheel vehicles cannot cross the river even when the rivulet is moderately flooded and there is a complete halt in transport.

The operation of vehicles on the long and short routes from Rajbiraj to Tirahut rural municipality, the Kanchanrup municipality and Saptakoshi municipality to the east and even to Udayapur district is completely closed during the monsoon,” he said. Moreover, the road fro, the incomplete bridge is also not asphalted up to two kilometres, further aggravating the situation, rued Dev Narayan Yadav, another local from the area.

Likewise, although a bridge is constructed at Budhewa of Tirahut rural municipality-5, the blacktopping of one kilomtre road from there is overly delayed, making road travel difficult, he complained. —RSS