Recently, the BP Highway has been blocked after it rained. Road construction work is being done above the river. But vehicles have been operated by creating temporary diversions in the river. Due to which, traffic is disrupted when normal floods occur. Temporary diversions are washed away by the flood. 

Recently, vehicle movement was affected after the Roshi River flooded on Monday. Upon learning of this, Home Minister Sudhan Gurung went to inspect the BP Highway on site to see what preparations are being made for the disaster during the monsoon. Suman Yogesh, head of the Road Division Office, Bhaktapur, said that the work is being done keeping in mind the section of the BP Highway that is at risk of floods and landslides before the monsoon. ‘The Home Minister took information about how the work is being done in such places,’ he said, ‘It can be done by adding resources for construction or by increasing the work shifts, and he gave instructions that there should be no problem in operating vehicles during the monsoon.’ 

He claims that work is being done to avoid problems during the monsoon season and vehicles will be driven on the road that is currently being built. Temporary diversions have been made from Chowkidanda to Barkhe Khola for vehicles to ply. 

Even though there is a road in this section, vehicles mostly ply on the temporary diversions of the river. The most problems are in the Katunjebensi, Charsaybensi, Narke, Chiuribas, Boksikuna, Kaldhunga and Piple sections. 

The flood of Asoj 2081 from Bhakundebensi to Nepalthok along the highway caused more damage to the 30.5 km area. Apart from the 3.2 km of the damaged highway, work is underway on a 27.3 km section. However, passengers are stranded due to floods that occur before the monsoon season. Currently, three packages have been made for Kavre and one for Sindhuli and the work has been progressed by making a contract agreement. The contract for the 11-km section of the two-lane highway from Bhakundebensi to Charsaybensi has been awarded to Lama-Nawakantipur JV for Rs 1.14 billion. The contract for the 9-km section from Charsaybensi to Dalabensi has been awarded to Khani-Kamaljit-Awan JV for Rs 1.22 billion excluding VAT. 

The contract for both contracts was awarded in Ashar. The contract for the 2.3-km section from Piple to Dalabensi was awarded to Uma & Company-Bhandari-Amarjyoti JV in Kartik. The contract amount for this section is Rs 688 million. JICA will construct a 3.2-km road from Piple to Barkhekhola. The road is being constructed on this section with a grant of Rs 2.63 billion from the Japanese government. 

The 5-km section from Barkhekhola to Nepalthok falls in Sindhuli. The contract for the section has been awarded to Kharidhunga-Ghising-Kshitij JV. Its contract amount is Rs 550 million excluding VAT. The Road Department has stated that the work on all sections should be completed within two years from the date of the agreement. Although there is road work on the highway, there is no progress in the construction of bridges. The bridge is the most congested in this section.

More than 4,000 vehicles ply this road daily. Due to the narrow and single-lane bridges, vehicles have to queue to cross. During the on-site monitoring of the BP Highway, Home Minister Gurung had directed Director General of the Road Department Vijay Jaisi to focus on the construction and improvement of road infrastructure, which is already at risk of floods and landslides across the country, so that passengers do not have to suffer due to the roads during the rainy season. Jaisi also accompanied Home Minister Gurung to monitor the BP Highway.

The Home Minister has directed to increase the pace of work on the BP Highway, and the pace of work has been found to be somewhat slow, said Director General of the Road Department Vijay Jaisi. "We are preparing to call construction entrepreneurs to the department to put pressure on them to complete the work quickly," he said. "There is time to work in Baisakh and Jestha. The work should be completed within this time. Vehicles will not have to ply through the river during the coming monsoon." 

Director General of the Roads Department Jaisi had directed the heads of the Federal Road Supervision and Monitoring Office Damak, Kathmandu, Pokhara, Surkhet, Mid-Hill, Postal, North-South Corridor, Madan Bhandari Highway, and the Project Directorate (ADB) to pay attention to road infrastructure work so that problems do not arise during the monsoon. The project heads had discussed in the department on Wednesday whether they could get new contracts from their divisions and road planning offices and how they could complete the work if problems were found. 

‘Wherever there were problems during the previous monsoon, landslides were not allowed to occur again, and floods were not allowed to cause problems again,’ said Director General Jaisi, ‘There are many mountain highways, and all of them are prone to flooding and landslides depending on the location.’ The department has stated that there is also a problem on the Kodari Road under the Araniko Highway. Currently, the risk of landslides is high on various sections of the Kanti Highway, BP Highway, Nagdhunga-Muglin Road, Daunne section of the Narayangadh-Butwal Road, Koshi, Karnali, Kaligandaki Corridor, Sanfe-Martadi Road, Bhalubang-Pyuthan Road, Surkhet-Nepalgunj Road, Mechi Highway, Narayangadh-Muglin Road, Galchhi-Trishuli-Syafrubensi-Rasuwagadhi Road. These roads tend to face more problems during the monsoon.