Sudurpashchim Bridges Sit Stranded Without Roads or Clearances

Across remote pockets of Sudurpashchim Province, public bridge infrastructure remains marooned or stalled due to poor administrative planning, missing access roads, and land compensation disputes, leaving thousands of residents isolated despite state spending.

In Bajura, a 45-metre motorable bridge completed two years ago over the Barjugad river remains out of service because the approach road on one side has not been built, Gorkhapatra reported. Constructed by Saud Adventure JV at a cost of Rs 20 million, the bridge was intended to connect Khaptad Chhededaha Rural Municipality-3 with Budhiganga Municipality-4. Until the road is linked, schoolchildren from Pudabaula must continue wading through the river to reach Bhanodaya Secondary School in Budhiganga, where a woman previously drowned during a crossing. Jang Bahadur Thapa, head of the Infrastructure Development Office in Sanfebagar, Achham, told the state-owned daily that one approach has been built while the other remains delayed, adding that authorities plan to complete the links in fiscal year 2083/84.

Elsewhere in Bajura, more than 14,900 residents across 2,442 households in Swamikartik Khapar and Jagannath rural municipalities remain without any motorable crossing over the Karnali river, Gorkhapatra reported in a separate story. Local families rely on a seasonal municipal ferry, but rising monsoon currents halt the boat entirely, forcing locals to carry rice, salt, and lentils on their backs across suspension bridges. Lalijan Khanal, chief of the government's Bridge Division, told Gorkhapatra that work on a permanent motorable crossing was halted because the designated site falls within the submergence zone of an upcoming hydropower project.

A similar disconnect has rendered a pedestrian crossing useless in Darchula district. In Malikarjun Rural Municipality-4, a 77.4-metre suspension bridge over the Ojigad river has sat abandoned for seven years after being completed in fiscal year 2076/77 at an expense of Rs 3.865 million, according to reports by Nagarik News and Nepal News.

Although the structure was finished by a local consumer committee with technical backing from the non-profit Samaj Kalyan Samaj, private landowners downstream refused to grant a right-of-way connecting the crossing to the main road. Indra Singh Dhami, acting ward chair of Malikarjun-4, said the ward allocated Rs 50,000 for a walking path, but private owners refused permission across their fields. Harish Thagunna, an overseer with Samaj Kalyan Samaj, noted the bridge was cleared without verifying transit access, leaving patients visiting local health posts and students at Hunainath Secondary School stranded during seasonal floods.