Imports of goods through the Rasuwa border crossing will also be suspended after the road will be closed to install retaining walls at 10 places eroded by floods and landslides.
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The Syafrubensi-Rasuwagadhi road connecting China will be closed for 15 days from Wednesday for the upgrading. The Galchhi-Trishuli-Mailung-Syafrubensi-Rasuwagadhi Road Planning Office has issued a public notice stating that retaining walls are going to be installed at 10 difficult places on the road section. According to the project, the road will be closed from the 1st to the 15th of every English month for 3 months. Accordingly, this road will be closed from Wednesday until April 2.
Krishnanath Ojha, the planning chief of the Galchhi-Trishuli-Mailung-Syafrubensi-Rasuwagadhi Road Planning Office, Bidur, said that the work is being done by closing the road due to geographical conditions. Due to the floods that occurred on Asar 24, landslides had occurred in places and caused damage. In such places, only 2.5 meters to 3 meters of tracks were opened and vehicles were brought into operation as they should. In most places, the road was widened by cutting the mountain when the Bhotekoshi cut the road from below.
‘Now this road is going to be upgraded to two lanes,’ said Chief Ojha, ‘Initially, work will be done in the difficult sections.’ He said that the work is being done by closing the road at the request of the Chinese team. ‘When we open it for vehicle operation, we close the road in easy places and when we come to difficult places, we work by closing the road,’ he said, ‘The machinery used in the construction is coming from China, and the necessary goods will come from there.’ The road from the south bridge of Syafrubensi to the Rasuwagadhi section connecting China and Nepal will be closed.
The work on the Syafrubensi-Rasuwagadhi road upgrade has begun 7 years after the agreement between the officials of the two countries. An implementation agreement was signed between the officials of the two countries in 2019 to upgrade the road with a grant from the Chinese government. However, the upgrading work has not been able to move forward yet. As the work was about to start, further progress could not be made on it due to the appearance of COVID-19.
The distance from Syafrubensi to Rasuwagadhi is 15.5 kilometers. The Chinese company Xichang Tianlu has come to Nepal to upgrade the road. The contract amount is 6.5 billion rupees. The construction period is set at 39 months. In the meantime, the work could not move forward due to the need for tax exemption on construction materials and goods brought from China. It took the Ministry of Finance 6 months to get this approved, and after approval, the Chinese team came to work. A decision has been made to exempt tax on stones, gravel, and sand used in construction. As this road, which connects China as a trade border, is currently narrow due to floods and landslides, cargo vehicles carrying ready-made goods from the Rasuwagadhi border crossing have been taking risks to reach Syafrubensi.
Rasuwa Customs Office Chief Officer Tulsi Prasad Bhattarai said that even though the road is closed, the customs office will not be closed. ‘When the road is closed, goods vehicles cannot go from one side (Nepal) to the other (China),’ he said, ‘Even if they take goods from there, they cannot reach the customs yard.’ He said that the approximately 4 km road from the checkpoint to the customs is difficult and there are three large landslides.
Before the monsoon, a hundred goods vehicles used to enter Nepal daily through this checkpoint and the same number used to go to China to take goods. Now, 30 to 35 goods vehicles go to China daily and the same number use to enter Nepal daily. Along with ready-made goods, electric vehicles are imported in large quantities through this checkpoint. Recently, machines and materials used in hydropower projects have been entering. The border crossing was closed after the flood in the Lhende River washed away the bridge on Asad 24. The border crossing was operational from December 17 after about 6 months.
The border crossing was operational after China built a temporary bailey bridge on the Lhende River. Chief Bhattarai said that only Rs 6.69 billion in revenue was collected from Shrawan to Chaitra 16 (Monday). 'The target was to collect Rs 40.16 billion,' he said, 'because the border crossing is closed for a long time and the road will be closed again, the target is not in sight.' He said that due to the announcement of the road closure, there has been less movement of goods vehicles through the border crossing for the past two days. Since it will be difficult to bring goods through this border crossing after the road is closed, businessmen will use Tatopani in Sindhupalchowk and Korala in Mustang as alternatives.
