The contract process for the reconstruction of the highway, which was damaged by the flood eight months ago, is barely underway, only after the reconstruction rains have ended
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With the onset of monsoon, the worries of commuters and drivers traveling through BP highway have already started. On the one hand, there is a risk that the road connection will be cut off by a flash flood at any time, on the other hand, there is also the fear of falling into a flash flood while traveling.
Last October, the flood had damaged about 12 km of the road in Chowkidanda-Barkhekhola section. After that, it took two weeks to bring the highway into one-way operation. After further repairs, traffic is now operating on the Dhulamya/Hilamya road. The government has just begun the process of rebuilding concrete roads. This year, the passengers have to travel on the BP highway in dry trucks throughout the winter.
The biggest problem on the highway is at Kavre's chowkidanda. After the road was destroyed by floods and landslides, a temporary road was built around it and vehicles were operated. But the vehicles coming to Kathmandu from the east tend to slip when going uphill in this section.
Only on Tuesday, a pickup van with Indian number plates, which was coming to Kathmandu from Kakdvitta with Bhuin Kathar, overturned. Asai Rohit Humagain of Bhakundebesi Police Station said that Niron Sarkar, the driver of the van, sustained minor head injuries. "In the four months since I have been at the post here, four vehicles have overturned while going uphill. But the grade of the road has not been fixed.
Durga Prasad, engineer of the Bhaktapur Division road office, told that work is being done to improve the grade of the hill at Chowkidanda. After the flood, the vehicle was driven through the bank of the river. Now a dirt road has been built above the river, it will last until the normal rains,' he said, 'but it cannot be said that there has been a flood like last October.' 23 km of BP Highway is under road division Bhaktapur.
Since the BP highway was built with the help of the Japanese government, even after the flood caused damage, the Nepal government expected Japan's help in the reconstruction as well. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) responded positively to the road reconstruction.
'After it was said that JICA would not build everything, we started making a detailed project report (DPR) ourselves, we did the design work,' said Suman Yogesh, head of road division Bhaktapur, 'we asked the road department for a budget in October. The department sent a letter to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, and the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure sent it to the Ministry of Finance, but the budget was not received immediately. According to Yogesh, head of the road division, the budget for BP highway reconstruction was finalized on February 6. After the budget allocation of 1 billion for Sindhuli section and 7.5 billion for Kavre section, the contract process was started. Although the flood destroyed about 12 km in places, 28 km will have to be rebuilt.
A contract is being signed with Khani-Kamaljit-Awan JV within two weeks for the reconstruction of the 8.5 km section from Dalabesi to Charsay Besi. Its contract amount is 1.42 billion rupees. It has been agreed that JICA will work on the 3.2 km Dalabesi-Barkhekhola section. Four hundred Besi-Bhakundebesi 11 km and Nepalthok-Barkhekhola 5 km sections are under contract process. Even though the contract has been signed immediately, the road division has said that there will be no reconstruction work during this year's summer season.
Dipendra Karki, who drives the Sindhuli-Kathmandu microbus, said that the travel time of the BP highway has been extended after the floods eight months ago. "When the road was smooth, I used to reach Kathmandu in four hours from Sindhuli, now it takes more than six hours," he said. If it rains, you can't drive on the slippery and slippery roads.''
Head of road division, Khalte Sindhuli, Parasmani Hamal said that the road has been improved in the section from Barkhekhola to Nepalthok, paying attention to Barkha. "Where the flood has washed away the road, we have brought it back to its original condition by putting soil, gravel, gravel, and prepared the road for rainy season by placing big stones," he said, "A small flood cannot wash away such stones." There is not much problem in Sindhuli section.'' "If there is a flood like that of Asoj, the current structure will not be able to handle it," he said.
After last October's floods, hotel-restaurant businesses around the highway are also affected. More than two dozen hotels-restaurants and houses were flooded in Sindhuli's Mulkot alone. Some of them have been renovated and put into operation.
Rajesh Shrestha, the owner and management in charge of the resort, said that most of the structures of the quality beach resort were on the ground floor, so the flood caused more damage. "We brought the resort back to its original condition, but even after 8 months, the road has not improved. Due to the bad road, customers rarely come to the resort, he said.
