Experts say that the problem of landslides in the Narayangadh-Muglin road section is increasing every year due to the earthquake of 2072 and auxiliary roads dug in a haphazard manner to connect settlements above the main road.
The Narayangadh-Muglin road has been experiencing landslides in various sections for the past few years, adding to the problem. Because of the landslide, the passenger bus has been buried, washed away and the passengers have been lost. In some cases, stones have fallen from the road on the moving vehicle, killing passengers and drivers.
On Friday evening, a landslide near Tuinkhola, which is two km from Muglin, added to the problem. There was a problem in Tuinkhol when the landslide with big stones was falling and the traffic was immediately diverted. On the occasion of Dasain, the passengers traveling east-west from Kathmandu were forced to stop on the road.
Vehicles that are still stopped in this way have been able to reach their destination . In 45 hours, the road was opened one-way from Sunday afternoon, but the local administration stopped traffic from 9:00 PM on Sunday to 5:00 AM on Monday, saying that there was a risk of landslides. Vehicles stopped from Chumlingtar to Muglin and from Jugedi, Narayangadh to Bharatpur Gondrang could not be cut . Only a small number of vehicles crossed.
The vehicles are still stranded on the road . When vehicles were stopped at random, the vehicle going to Pokhara via Kurintar also got stuck in the middle of the road. According to the road department, there is no problem on the Muglin-Pokhara road. The police has been asking the drivers and passengers to use this alternative route.
Why does the landslide keep falling in Tuinkhola?
Why is the risk of landslides increasing in Tuinkhola? To the question, Subhraj Neupane, head of the Federal Road Supervision and Monitoring Office, says, 'The geographical structure is very complicated and difficult in the section from Muglin to Narayangadh.' An example of how much damage will be caused due to such dug roads is the example of two passenger buses running in Simaltal on this road section last year.
Photo: Road Division Office, Bharatpur
Similarly, it has been found that the hills that were damaged during the expansion of the road and the hills that have been torn down are falling into new ones. "There is still a risk in Tuinkhola, we will start studying the cause of the problem with the opening of the two-way road," he said. Similarly, the team of Road Division Bharatpur office is operated with machines and technical manpower .
Neupane, who is working on the landslide removal work, said on the telephone that landslides have started falling in new places on this road section. "The road from Narayangadh to Muglin was not a two-lane road before, we made it a two-lane road keeping in mind the traffic," he said. Now there is no problem in that place .
Road Division Office Bharatpur has the data that more than 11 thousand small and big vehicles pass through this road daily. Narayangadh-Muglin road, which is known as the 'lifeline' road of the country, is blocked and there is a shortage of daily necessities in Kathmandu Valley. East-west passenger vehicles pass through this road. Daily consumables enter the capital through this road. The problem is added when the road is closed at the mouth of Chadbad.
Two-lane upgrading of this road was started from April 20, 2015 with the help of concessional loan of 2 billion 90 million rupees from the World Bank. Later, in August 2018, it was upgraded and handed over to Road Division Office, Bharatpur, Chitwan. By this time only four bridges were built and 15 bridges were not yet built. Now 19 new bridges have been constructed in this section. The entire bridge is also operational. According to Road Division Bharatpur, the bridge was also built with a concessional loan of 1.27 billion rupees from the World Bank.
