Most of the bridges on the eastern Nawalparasi section of the East-West Highway are also dilapidated. Due to this, passengers have to travel through diversions for months due to the problem of bridges collapsing and breaking from time to time.
What you should know
Most of the bridges built during the construction of the East-West Highway are in a dilapidated condition. Passengers are suffering as old bridges repeatedly break down due to the inability to handle the load-bearing capacity of current vehicles.
Most of the bridges in the eastern Nawalparasi section of the East-West Highway are also dilapidated. Due to this, passengers have to travel through diversions for months due to the problem of bridges collapsing and breaking from time to time.
On April 10, the Girubari Bridge at Chormara in eastern Nawalparasi along the East-West Highway collapsed due to overloaded vehicles. The Road Department, which had a target of repairing and operating traffic within 15 days, repaired the bridge and brought it into operation on June 24. Even though the bridge was put under support and brought into operation, this bridge is not in a condition to bear the weight of large vehicles.
As the Butwal-Narayangadh road is being expanded, a new bridge is also being constructed along with this old bridge. Therefore, until the construction of the new bridge is completed, the Road Department and police have been posted on both sides of the old bridge to prevent overloaded vehicles from operating.
Freight vehicles are stopped to check their weight, and if they are found to be overloaded, they are allowed to unload the goods and keep only the specified weight. A notice has been posted on dilapidated and repaired bridges allowing vehicles with a load carrying capacity of only 40 tons per side to operate. Accordingly, security personnel are guarding the bridge 24 hours a day.
Security personnel have been deployed on the bridge until the new bridge is constructed and put into operation, said Mohan Khadka, Police Inspector of the District Police Office, East Nawalparasi. There is a situation where security personnel have to be deployed 24 hours a day on the Girubari Bridge in Chormara and the Arunkhola Bridge.
Special attention has been paid to the safety of the bridge, saying that if security personnel are not deployed, there will be problems if overloaded vehicles drive over the bridge and damage it. In this way, the Binayi Khola bridge in Dumkibas on the East-West Highway was broken on 26 Poush 2081. The broken bridge has not been repaired yet. Vehicles are moving through the new bridge built during the road expansion at the same location.
The bridges under the Butwal-Narayangadh road section are trust bridges over 50 years old. The bridges were built according to the traffic volume and load capacity at the time during the construction of the East-West Highway. The old bridge structure cannot handle modern vehicles and vehicles with four times the load capacity of the previous ones.
This section carries 10,000 vehicles, both large and small, daily. On top of that, it is struggling to handle the load of Indian vehicles carrying overloads. The practice of letting overloaded vehicles go free by imposing only a simple fine has caused more damage to the bridge and the road.
The traffic police do not have the authority to open and unload goods brought in after being sealed by customs under normal circumstances. Moreover, since the weight measurement at the weigh centers in Nepal is only up to 100 tons, overloaded Indian containers have caused more damage to the bridge.
‘The Butwal-Narayangadh road section is under expansion. Some bridges have been damaged due to overloaded vehicles and are being repaired, while new bridges are also being constructed,’ said Shiva Khanal, Information Officer of the Narayangadh-Butwal Road Expansion Project Eastern Section. ‘Since damage to the bridge would cause problems, the Road Division Office, Bharatpur, and security personnel have taken the initiative to provide security to the bridge.’
