Kathmandu, June 9
Officials of the Department of Roads are confused after Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Raghubir Mahaseth directed them against implementing a recommendation forwarded by the Department’s consultants.
The consultants had recommended pulling down the bridge over Bishnumati River in Teku of Kathmandu citing it does not meet quality standards, but the Minister wants to repair it.
The bridge was constructed by controversial Pappu Construction and the consultants had found serious negligence in the process. The construction company is owned by Samajwadi Party Nepal’s suspended lawmaker Hari Narayan Rauniyar.
“The gap between two spans is wide in this bridge. This structure has the pre-stress technology, so retrofitting does not reduce risks,” an official at the Department says, “We don’t think operating it will do any good as the consultants have recommended otherwise.”
Earlier, Kathmandu Sustainable Urban Transport Project had directed the construction company to pull down the bridge and redo it from the beginning while the construction was underway. The directive was not heeded then.
Rauniyar was suspended from the lawmaker’s position after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a corruption case against him and his company, accusing irregularities in the construction of a bridge over Babai River in western Nepal.
