The work of opening the track of the Sahajpur-Bogtan-Dipayal road of Doti has been completed 35 years after the construction work started.
The construction work of the road, which has been in the news since the election of ‘Rashtriya Panchayat’ in 2038 BS, was started in 2043 BS. Chairman of Bogtan Phudsil Village Municipality Kamal Bahadur Gadsila informed that the Sahajpur-Bogtan-Dipayal road has been connected after the remaining work of opening the track between Lanakedareshwor of Badi Kedar Gaonpalika-5 and Bogtan Phudsil Gaonpalika-1 was completed on Sunday.
Ram Chandra Khatri, head of the Infrastructure Development Office, Dadeldhura, said that the Bogtan Road was completed after the Far-Western Provincial Government allocated the budget with priority by including it in the state pride scheme.
The road that started from Sahajpur in Kailali is connected to Rajpur Dipayal via Binigar, Attarkanda, Simchaur, Lana, Chavarachautara, Gaguda, Tikhattar, Basudebi, Vayal, and Ranagaun. Khatri said that double cutting, construction of walls, and construction of drains are also being done under the road construction program.
It was jointly constructed by Khadka Krishna, Baglamukhi, and Pawan Nirman Company at a cost of Rs 38.3 million by the Far-Western Provincial Government. Citizens of Bogtan Phudsil, Badikedar, and KISingh villages will directly benefit after the road is connected.
This is the story of Sahajpur-Bogtan-Dipayal road
The construction work of this road was started in 2043 BS by connecting 10 former VDCs of Doti including Sahajpur and Ningali in the hilly region of Kailali to reach Dipayal. The foundation stone of the road was laid by Bharat Bahadur Khadka, then chairman of the District Development Committee, Doti. But the work progressed slowly.
Siddharaj Ojha, who became the candidate of the Nepali Congress in the general election in 2048 BS, made this road the main agenda. Ojha won the election in 051 BS and 056 BS with the slogan of the road. But the construction work did not pick up speed.
In subsequent elections, this road became the main election agenda of the candidates. Khem Bam, the winning candidate for the Constituent Assembly from the then CPN-Maoist in 2064 BS, had the same street slogan. He also failed to write a constitution during his tenure, nor did the Bogtan road construction work.
When Baburam Bhattarai was the Finance Minister in 2065 BS, even though he had a power budget of Rs 5 million, it was like cumin in an elephant’s mouth.
In the second Constituent Assembly election of 2070 BS, this road again became the common and major agenda of the candidates of Doti Constituency No.2. CPN-UML candidate Prem Bahadur Alemgar took the same agenda and vowed to build roads anyway during his tenure.
This road also became an election agenda in the House of Representatives and State Assembly elections held in 2074 BS. The candidates of the then Left Alliance raised the same agenda. In the House of Representatives, Bijayi Alemgar became the Union Minister while Trilochan Bhatt, the winning candidate in the State Assembly ‘B’, became the Chief Minister of the Far Western Province.
The construction work started from Sahajapur and started from Dipayal Rajpur in the year 2056 BS with the investment of donor agencies. Currently, about 10 kilometers of road from Dipayal to Ranagaun has been tarred by the Far-Western Provincial Government.
Meanwhile, a 52-kilometer road from Sahajapur to Attarkanda in Bogtan is being tarred from the federal government’s budget. The foundation stone of the road was laid by the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Falgun 7, 2075.
