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What can one bridge do?
JHAPA, AUG 20 -
What does it say about a country when the foundations for a much-awaited bridge are laid three times in the last 50 years, and the only signs of any bridge are pillars jutting out of the ground? If nothing else, it provides ample proof of the promises of politicians.
In January this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Planning and Works Bijay Kumar Gachchadar landed in Bhadrapur, Jhapa, to lay the foundations of a bridge across the Mechi River. The previous UCPN (Maoist)-led government had sanctioned an amount of Rs. 50 million for the bridge in that fiscal year’s budget, and at the foundation-laying programme, Gachchadar put his political career as a wager against the construction of the bridge. He said if the bridge
wasn’t constructed in three years, he would quit politics—a promise Bhadrapur residents took with a pinch of salt. After all, it wasn’t the first time a politician had promised them a bridge using such high and lofty words.
In 1964, another political leader—Manmohan Mishra, then-Mechi Zonal Commissioner under the Panchayat regime—had laid the foundations of a bridge. Two decades later in 1985, then-Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand was once again at a foundation-laying programme.
The new bridge will be constructed at a cost of Rs. 490 million over a period of three years, and this time, Gachchadar promised, he would never return to Jhapa if the bridge wasn’t constructed. It seems the minister is taking his words seriously, or at least those in his ministry are. The construction of the bridge has already begun, with six pillars taking shape by now. This doesn’t quell the doubts of the residents, though. “The bridge should be constructed looking at the work-in-progress. But we can’t be sure considering what happened earlier,” says Parshu Ram Agrawal, ex-president of Jhapa Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
A Mechi Bridge connecting Bhadrapur to Galgaliya in India is important for several reasons. The town is one of the largest commercial centres in South-East Nepal after Biratnagar and Rangeli. Town records state that Bhadrapur has always been a hub for rice and jute trade. Mohan Lal Agrawal, one of the town’s oldest traders, remembers how trade in the two crops flourished during the Rana regime, when traders from all over the region would throng the market place. “It all seems like a dream now,” he says.
Traders here recount how Bhadrapur would see rice mill owners from Galgaliya spreading their weights in nearly every lane of the town to purchase rice around that time. Agrawal says, “At the time, no one would speak about the towns towards the north. Bhadrapur was the centre of trading then.”
Bhadrapur businessmen at the time were constantly thinking of how to compete with their richer Indian counterparts. Businessman Om Prakash Sarawagi recalls local traders thought of two ideas: one, to have a weekly trading market in Bhadrapur itself, and two, to set up a rice mill in the town itself. In 1903, local traders shifted the weekly market from Galgaliya to Bhadrapur. And in 1950, the year Nepal got rid of the Rana regime, Brahma Lal Shrestha (Mukhiya) set up the B.B. Rice Mill, according to Ram Bahadur Thapa’s memoirs in the local chamber of commerce’s publication. After the first mill, 12 more opened, and Bhadrapur was finally the trading centre it should have been much earlier.
In 1951, Bhadrapur was one of the six municipalities as declared by the government. Then, in one of Nepal’s biggest ironies, the construction of the East-West Highway in the 1960’s led to the demise of rice and jute trade in Bhadrapur. The highway gave the town a miss, resulting in business shifting northwards. Besides, the absence of a bridge across the Mechi also dearly cost the town.
Economically, one of Nepal’s biggest drawbacks has been its landlocked borders. In the last few years, Bangladesh’s decision to allow Nepal port access has considerably heightened hopes of an economic revival. In that regard, the closest town to the Bangladeshi border is Bhadrapur, which is only 19 km away from Titouliya in Bangladesh, according to Rajendra Ghimire, president of the local chamber of commerce. At present, the Kakadbhitta border that Nepal uses is 56 km away from the Phulbari border in Bangladesh, but even then it hasn’t been easy for Nepal, as this route hasn’t been fully utilised. Locals here argue that this makes it even more imperative that the Bhadrapur-Titouliya land route is developed as soon as possible. And if that were to happen, the construction of the Mechi Bridge is an immediate requirement.
Funds for the bridge were raised by Bhadrapur residents in 1964 and in 1971. When then-crown prince Birendra had come for a tour of the Eastern region in 1971, the locals handed him the money they had collected. Agrawal, a member of the committee that submitted the funds, remembers, “At the time, the common practice was that the royal family doubled the amount of money locals had given them.” Instead, locals allege Birendra embezzled the funds without even trying to get them a bridge. Five were arrested and jailed for a year when posters and pamphlets were distributed alleging the embezzlement.
Now, it seems like an age-old story. After funds for a bridge were allocated in the budget, Bhadrapur has begun witnessing the return of traders who had shifted north. Journalist Nakul Kaji says a lot of people are returning because of the hype over the bridge. “Locals who had shifted to Dhulabari and Birtamod are now seeking new opportunities back home.”
Bhadrapur is now seeing rising residential development with this new influx. New houses are cropping up, with more and more land plots being developed and sold by the day. Businessman Parshuram Agrawal estimates nearly 50 bigahs of land are now ready for residential development.
All of this new development revolves around the bridge. If the bridge is not constructed the third time around, Gachchadar may or may not quit politics, but Bhadrapur will again sink back into the deep abyss of anonymity despite the promises.
Posted on: 2010-08-21 09:02
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