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| Kathmandu, Monday August 04, 2003 Shrawan 19, 2060. |
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Work on war footing along
Prithvi Highway
Post Report
HETAUDA, Aug 3 : The Department of Roads (DoR)
has expedited reconstruction works on the Tribhuvan Rajpath today after attempts to open
the Prithvi Highway became unsuccessful. The Narayangarh-Mugling section of the highway is
still blocked by several massive landslides.
According to Yogendra Kumar Rai, the chief of
the Divisional Roads at Hetauda, road workers are working overnight to tame the swelling
Rapti River that had changed its course and was flowing along the road.
He said the road would be opened for traffic
once the reconstruction works at Bulbule, the damaged section of the highway that lies 10
kilometres away from Hetauda, are complete. "If weather permits, vehicles could ply
on the highway through to the capital," he assured.
About a 150-meter-long stretch of the country’s
oldest highway in the Hetauda-Bhaise section was swept away by the ravaging Rapti River on
Wednesday following two days of incessant rains. A report from Chitwan says DoR had
completed a construction of diversion and cleared debris in the affected 20-km-long
stretch of the Prithvi Highway by this evening.
Guru Prasad Dhakal, the chief of Divisional
Office of DoR at Bharatpur, said that a diversion was built beside the culvert that was
damaged by a massive landslide at the place called ‘Pandra Kilo’ while another
diversion was created, cutting through the landslide at ‘Satra Kilo’. Similarly,
road workers cleared debris at two other spots, opening the 20-km-long stretch of the
highway.
Meanwhile, another report from Tanahu adds the
road link between the capital and Pokhara remains cut off because of massive landslides at
three spots in the Mugling-Abu Khaireni sector of the Prithvi Highway. Landslides had
swept away a 33m-long bridge over the Ruwa Khola and a culvert at Dharapani. DoR officials
informed that it would take a few more days before the road could come into operation.
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