With the arrival of Dasain, there is a rush to leave the federal capital Kathmandu. But at this time the condition of the road is bad. Prithviraj Highway and Narayangadh Muglin Road, the main roads connecting Kathmandu with East-West Mahendra Highway, are closed for hours due to landslides. After clearing the landslide, the vehicle was barely opened, but after some time, the landslide again blocked the road.

It took 18 hours to reopen the traffic that was closed due to a dry landslip near Dhading Jawangkhola on the Prithviraj highway on Tuesday morning. Those who were happy about the opening of the Jawang landslide soon found out that the Narayangadh Muglin road had been closed due to a landslide at Tuinkhola.

Landslides were continuously falling in Tuinkhola from the end of August. Due to the fact that the landslide was not too big, the road was opened in a short time after clearing it. But on the first day of October, the landslide that fell on Friday evening blocked the road for 45 hours. The one-way road that was opened on Sunday evening became a two-way road only from Monday afternoon. From time to time, dry landslides and small stones did not stop falling in Tuinkhola . When the road was blocked for almost two days, thousands of vehicles stopped on the road were not able to cross, another landslide occurred in Jawangkhola of Dhading, far from Muglin.

Tuin's jam was opened, landslides fell in Jawang river and when Jawang's landslide was cleared, stones fell into Tuin river and disturbed the passengers . When will the road that was blocked after a huge landslide in Tuinkhola be opened at around 5 pm on Tuesday ? There is confusion . 

The landslide that fell there on Saturday morning blocked the road for two days and the latest landslide was the same as that of the same day, said Engineer Krishna Acharya, Information Officer of the Division Road Office.

Landslides are not new on the main roads connecting the capital. A decade ago, with the construction of a two-lane wide road on the Narayangarh Muglin road section, the problem of landslides also started here . Later, this problem was further compounded by the construction of a wide bridge equal to the road. Landslides started causing pain in the places where the mountains were cut while the road was widened and the bridge was built. 

The road expansion is currently being done up to Nagadhunga, the crossing point of Kathmandu east of Muglin. Malekhu Muglin Road is in the western section of Nagadhunga Muglin Road Scheme. The plan is expanding by making three sections. If the 39 km road from Malekhu to Muglin under the third package had been made plain, it would have been almost in the final stage of expansion. The expansion work of this section was started on December 30, 2022 and completed within three years . Of course, the road expansion will have to be completed by the 14th of January. But now only about 33 percent of the work is done, said Sachendra Mishra, information officer of Nagadhunga Muglin road plan west section. On the one hand, the expansion work is incomplete, on the other hand, landslides are also bothering us. "There was not such a big landslide here, but this time on Tuesday morning, a big landslide happened near Jawangkhol," said Engineer Mishra. Even after 18 hours the landslide cleared, the risk of further falls remains. 

The nature of the landslide that fell on the Ichchakamana rural municipality-5 Tuinkhola bridge, 2 and a half kilometers after Muglin was cut, is also similar. Genten was cleared by heavy rains all day on Saturday and Sunday, but there was a suspicion that the road would be blocked by landslides or stones again on this day. Needless to say, the vehicle has not been able to run for a single day, and on Tuesday evening, a big landslide has occurred in Tuinkhola and the road has been blocked. 

It is estimated that it will cost around 10 million rupees to solve the Tuinkhola landslide alone. But it is not possible to start this work immediately. The risk has increased in Tuinkhola. The permanent solution is rocknetting with anchoring . Which is not immediately possible," said senior DE Narayan Prasad Lamichhane, head of Bharatpur's divisional road office.

He said that he will call an expert team from the road department to study after Dasain. Based on that, he says that the work will start in the coming winter. He said that even though a study has been done once for landslide prevention, more studies are needed due to the fact that the landslide area has increased and the form has also changed. Earlier, a landslide with stones and Gegran used to fall from 70 meters above . This time, since small pieces of stones have fallen from a height of one and a half hundred meters, further study is required, says senior DI Narayan Prasad Lamichhane, head of the Divisional Road Office of Bharatpur. He said anchoring should be done to prevent stones from falling. The work of connecting the rocks on the surface of the mountain flank with a strong rock by placing a pipe to prevent them from falling down to the road is called anchoring . Such pipes should be placed within 10/15 meters.

In the same way, small stones are covered with a net and nailed to prevent them from falling down. Thus, Lamichhane, head of division road office, said that rock netting with anchors is the means to prevent the landslide of Tuinkhola. In Tuinkhola, where the hill was cut to make a wide bridge in line with the Narayangadh Muglin road, which has been widened into two lanes, landslides have started in the past three to four years. 15 such bridges were started on Narayangadh Muglin road from Chaitra 2076.

Tuin River has been operational since last year as a bridge. But the problem of landslides has already started. Two years ago in June, the road was blocked by landslides for 28 hours. Last year there was not such a big problem . Landslides started falling from the beginning of this year . Arjun Ghimire, Engineer of the Divisional Road Office, said that landslides have been occurring day after day since August 26. It had been raining for a week. Therefore, a small landslide occurred from Friday evening due to wet conditions. "Saturday morning was terrible," he said.

The length of the landslide is about 160 meters from the Narayangadh side of the bridge. On the top of the mountain, the rocks formed in sheets are ready to fall . On the afternoon of June 12th, the division road office stopped the vehicle and removed the rocks that were in danger of falling on the road. At that time, such rocks up to 16 meters high were brought down by the office . But on Friday and Saturday, rocks fell from 70 meters above and hit the streets. 

Lamichhane, the head of the division, says that the height of the landslide has increased and doubled. Chief Lamichhane said, "We will go and monitor once with the armed police to see if the big stones on top can be removed and cleaned." Along with Tuinkhola, there is a risk of landslides in places like Topekhola, Namsi Pul, Gaighat. Lamichhane says that landslide prevention should be done in those places. Even if rock netting is done elsewhere, rock netting with anchoring is needed in Tuien. It is estimated that 10 million rupees will be required for the Tuin River alone,' he said.