The army is working on a war-footing to complete the road from Beni to Jomsom. Work on the road started in 1996, the year the Maoist war started, and construction halted also because of the conflict.

Now, with only a few cliffs left to blast through, 2,000 labourers and 300 soldiers are working night and day to complete the road by next month. Gravelling has been done on the 41km highway and vehicles are already plying the areas that are completed up to Lete. But there is the strange situation where locals prevent trekkers from riding buses because otherwise they won't stay in their lodges.

But the apple growers of Marpha and Jomsom are happy that their fruits will now have a market. With the road, we won't have a situation where apples would be rotting in Mustang while shops in Pokhara sold apples from New Zealand.