Landslides cause damage worth Rs 50 million on the Mid-Hill Highway

KATHMANDU: SEPT. 12 – Landslide has damaged a section of the Pokhara-Baglung road on the Mid-Hill Pushpalal Highway, which is in the final stage of blacktopping. The eight-kilometer road in the section was blocked at 20 places on the night of August 3.

The worst hit was Dobilla in Kushma Municipality. Even though the road was brought into operation after a week using explosives in Vaplekhola, the road is jammed for hours every day.

Although the 24-kilometer road construction of the section has reached the final stage of blacktop work, the landslide has affected it. According to the Mid-Hill Pushpalal Highway Project Office Parbat, about 50 million rupees worth of physical infrastructure was destroyed on the road due to the landslide.

Head of the project office Parbat Meghraj Marasini said that only two kilometers of the road in 24 kilometers of the section was left to be blacktopped but now few more kilometers need to be repaired.

Even though the blocked highway has been reopened after a week, it has taken hours for passengers to cross the section due to the debris and traffic jam.

Ujjwal Sharma, an engineer at the Mid-Hill Pushpalal Highway Project Office, Parbat, said that the project is collecting details of the damage and is studying for the construction of blacktop roads, drains, walls, culverts and other new structures damaged by the landslide.