No easy travel via Daunne this Dashain festival

By Bomlal Giri,Nawalpur, Sept. 21: Travelling home for Dashain is once again proving difficult because of long traffic jams at Daunne along the East-West Highway in Nawalpur.

On Friday morning, Krishna Prasad Tiwari, an ambulance driver taking a patient from Bhairahawa to Bharatpur, left Bardaghat uphill at 8 am. It took him nearly nine hours just to get through Dumkibas after struggling with the Daunne jam.

Santosh Yadav, a lorry driver who had brought goods from Hyderabad, India to Kathmandu, was stuck in the Daunne jam from 8 pm on Thursday until 4 pm on Friday.

Sushil Pandey of Butwal, returning home after his college holiday in Kathmandu, was stuck for hours in Dumkibas along with friends and fellow bus passengers until late evening.

They are not alone. Anyone travelling from Kathmandu to Butwal, Palpa, Dang, Pyuthan, Arghakhanchi, Nepalgunj, Surkhet and beyond has been forced to endure the same hardship. The 14-kilometre stretch between Bardaghat and Dumkibas has seen endless lines of vehicles.

Tribhuvan University has announced holidays until October 26, 2025, while Dashain begins on September 22, 2025. As students from Kathmandu and migrants from abroad head home, traffic pressure has already mounted. But once again, travellers will not have an easy journey due to Daunne.

Locals blame the negligence and delays of China State Construction Corporation, the contractor responsible for road expansion. Since Wednesday, traffic has been repeatedly blocked -- first near Bishwakarma Baba Temple, then at Khursani Khola on Thursday evening, and finally at '65 Mode' after a landslide on Friday afternoon. In three days, the road was fully obstructed three times. By Friday evening, a traffic jam over 14 kilometres long stretched from Bardaghat to Dumkibas.

Inspector Janak Banjara, head of Nawalpur District Traffic Police, said passengers are facing extreme hardship as vehicles take 10 to 16 hours to cross Daunne. Everything from buses, lorries and trucks to hearses and ambulances are getting stuck.

Chief District Officer Bhavishwor Pandey said he had instructed the contractor to finish blacktopping before Dashain, but no progress has been seen. “Work is not visible. Problems have already started in Daunne, and traffic will only get worse during Dashain. We will meet again tomorrow to discuss the matter,” he said.

So far, only 3-km of the Bardaghat section has been blacktopped, another 3-km repaired, and 2-km one-way paved, leaving 6-km unfinished, causing most of the trouble. Project Director Chudaram Dhakal said no major work is likely before Dashain. “If rain continues, there is no way to ease travel. If it stops, we can at least try to make the journey easier,” he said.

According to contractor engineer Rakesh Jha, about 70 per cent of physical progress had been achieved by the fourth deadline extension on July 24, 2025. But in the past two months, only two per cent of progress has been made.

Landslide blocks Karmiya-Hariharpurgadhi road 

A landslide at Chipleti cliff in Bagmati Municipality-11, Sarlahi, has blocked the road from Karmiya on the East-West Highway to Hariharpurgadhi Rural Municipality in Sindhuli.

According to Ward Chairperson Pradeep Acharya, heavy rainfall on Thursday night triggered the landslide on the slope east of Nunthar, bringing traffic to a complete halt.