Under the Nepal government’s initiative to build hospitals at all local levels, the construction of the hospital building in Mangala Rural Municipality, Myagdi, has been left incomplete. The work has been delayed due to the negligence and delays of the contractor responsible for the construction. Although the building was supposed to be completed by mid-July 2022, the progress remains at only 17%, despite the deadline being extended twice. The construction work progressed by just 7% in one year, with only 10% of the work completed by last year’s mid-February. The delay in the construction of the hospital building in Mangala Rural Municipality, as well as in the nearby municipalities of Benighat and Malika, has caused suffering for the public. Local youth Chiranjibi Sharma expressed that people had hoped to receive services in their own Rural Municipality once the hospital was built, but with no clear timeline for completion, the public has become disheartened.
The engineer of the Rural Municipality, Arun Paudel, informed that despite repeated reminders to the contractor responsible for the construction, no attention has been given to complete the work. Mangala Rural Municipality Chairperson Satprasad Rokaya said that the delay in construction caused by the contractor has made it difficult to receive the budget from the federal government. He explained that the budget depends on the progress of the work, but since the contractor hasn’t done the work, they are unable to get the budget.
Under the federal government’s plan to operate basic-level hospitals in all municipalities, the foundation stone for the hospital building in Handebhir, Mangla Rural Municipality-5, was laid on 30 December 2020. The rural municipality signed a contract with Om Buddha International Construction Kathmandu for the construction of the hospital building in June 2021, for Rs 9,11,00,000.
