Locals in Thali of Kageshwori Manahara Municipality residing along the 12.5-km Chabahil-Sankhu road once again resorted to imposing a blockade on the road segment today, after the contractor failed to blacktop the road.

The irate locals forced the mayor of the municipality to walk on the road section as part of their protest programme.

The locals had imposed the first blockade on the road on June 11, demanding its timely blacktopping. They had withdrawn their protest after local level authorities assured them that the contractor company would immediately start blacktopping the road.

Locals residing along the 3-km road segment from Hariyali Nagar to Brahmakhel have complained that no blacktopping work was carried out and the contractor left the road unattended after removing mud from large potholes. They complained that there are as much as three-feet deep potholes on the road segment leading to accidents almost every day.

Commuters from Salambutar, Indrayani, Nayapati, Danchhi and Thali have been facing difficulty due to the deplorable condition of the road. They complained that the road has been left unattended for the past four years.

Irate locals forced Mayor of Kageshwori Manahara Municipality Krishna Hari Thapa to walk on the road. The mayor had been avoiding the road, according to locals.

The mayor later arranged for seven excavators to clear the drainage on the road sides and promised to gravel it within a week.

Pacified by the mayor’s initiative towards improving the road the locals have suspended their protest programme. But many

locals still doubt that the road will be blacktopped after the monsoon. Thali road section is a part of 12.5-km Chabahil-Sankhu road, where the locals of Chabahil area had staged a mass protest demanding timely black-topping of the road in Chabahil, on the first week of May.

Following the protest, the contractor blacktopped the road section from Chabahil to Jorpati. But, the remaining part of the road is still in a sorry state.