Make Roads Safe

Dashain, the biggest festival, is just a month away, and people are now busy planning their travels to their hometowns and preparing lists of essential goods they need to purchase for the festival. Those who failed to return home to celebrate Dashain last year because of the devastating floods of September 27 and 28, which washed away a 12-kilometre section of the BP Highway and caused damage to other roads, are also planning to go home this time to mark the festival with family members. 

However, the latest news reports suggest otherwise. While the BP Highway, damaged a year ago, has not been repaired, other highways are also not free from frequent landslides and flooding.  The diversion road of the BP Highway can be obstructed at any time if the water level in the Roshi River rises. Moreover, landslides along the damaged section of the BP Highway and the Prithvi Highway are frequent. A moderate rainfall lasting for a few hours could trigger landslides along these two key exit roads, totally bringing the vehicular movements to and from the capital valley to a standstill. The situation on other highways is no different. Travelling along the Narayangadh-Butwal and Itahari-Urlabari sections of the East-West Highway has been a nightmare for months, as the road widening works on these sections have been in progress for a long time. 

While the poor road conditions are there to spoil the festive mood of many, there is also likely to be a shortage of goods in the festival, as hundreds of cargo containers carrying goods to Kathmandu have been stranded on the Chinese territory near the Tatopani border. According to a news report published in this daily the other day, a landslide triggered by continuous rainfall has blocked the Eco section of the Bahrabise–Kodari road, bringing the vehicular movements to a complete halt, stranding more than 1,500 cargo containers. 

Tatopani is now the only functioning entry point between China and Nepal after the Miteri Bridge at the Rasuwagadhi border point was swept away by a flash flood on July 8. All the pilgrims and containers supposed to enter Nepal via Rasuwagdhi were entering Nepal via Tatopani. Now the obstruction in Tatopani has added to the woes of pilgrims to Mansarovar, traders and consumers. Although work is underway to reopen the Rasuwaghadi border point by mid-September, the obstruction in the Kodari highways on the eve of the festival season could cause a scarcity of goods like clothes and fruit during the  festival season. 

Following the devastating earthquake that caused massive damage to the entry point in April 2015, the Tatopani border was closed for eight years. It was opened for cargo movement in May 2023 and for people's movement on September 1 of the same year. The Rasuwagdahi border point opened in 2014 for commercial purposes and for human movements in 2017. It served as the sole entry point till Tatopani was rebuilt and reopened two years ago. But Tatopani could not be safe because of frequent natural disasters. The latest blockage of the key border road has prompted traders to park containers carrying goods intended for the upcoming festivals in expensive Chinese warehouses, incurring high storage fees. Perishable items have begun to rot. 

They could not be brought to Kathmandu without maintaining the blocked roads. Therefore, the government should take initiatives so that the blocked Kodari road comes into operation soon, and there will be no short supply of essential goods during Dashain. Likewise, efforts should also be made to repair damaged roads in time so that passengers do not face any hassle while travelling to their homes.