Surkhet, April 5 -- Construction of a bridge over the Bheri river, intended to connect Rukum West and Jajarkot under the Mid-Hill Highway, has remained stalled for over a decade.

YP Construction Pvt Ltd of Lalitpur secured the contract in 2009, agreeing to complete the approximately 100-meter bridge within 30 months at a cost of Rs134.7 million. After years of negligible progress and a termination warning from the Mid-Hill Highway Project Office, the contractor completed only 30 percent of the work before abandoning the site entirely.

The project office subsequently blacklisted YP Construction, cancelled the contract, and imposed a fine of Rs85.79 million. Since then, the tender has been reissued three times. Engineer Navin Kharel noted...