KAVREPLANCHOK, March 29: The road in the Roshi area has been shut due to a flood in the Roshi River caused by Friday evening rain that swept away the temporary road on the BP Highway.
The diverted road was supposed to be temporarily operational after the river's water flow decreased, but constant rain has made this impossible.
The District Police Office in Kavreplanchok has barred travel from Saturday night until the route is reopened. The Roshi River flooded after Friday evening rain, washing away around four kilometers of the 'diversion' from Chowkidanda to Nepalthok in the Roshi area. As a result, the highway has been shut since Friday evening.
Although a plan was made to temporarily construct the road and put it into operation on Saturday with the help of the Road Department, Nepal Police, Traffic Police, and locals, it was unable to do so due to repeated rains, according to Komal Shah, Chief Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office in Kavreplanchok.
Flood washes away Dumkibas diversion, East-West Highway blocked
According to him, if the Roshi River's water flow drops, attempts will be made to construct a diversion in the area that will allow vehicles to run beginning Sunday morning.
According to the Division Road Office in Bhaktapur, four kilometers of the 18-kilometer detour established on the road section were washed away by last year's floods and landslides at various locations. Although reconstruction began on Saturday morning after the water flow in the Roshi River began to decrease in the areas where the diversion had been washed away, the office's chief Senior Divisional Engineer, Suman Yogesh, stated that the diversion was difficult to construct due to the continuous rain. According to him, the flood did not do any harm in areas where permanent repair has commenced.
Following last year's Asoj floods and landslides, which entirely devastated the Chowkidanda-Nepalthok road stretch, temporary roads and diversions from the river were built to allow vehicles to function.
"We had started constructing a diversion in the place washed away by the floods at night, but efforts to operate vehicles failed until Saturday evening due to continuous rain," Yogesh said.
According to him, landslides and floods, including those in Biruwadanda, Kaldhunga, Chowkidanda, and Mangaltar, have swept away roadways along the route.
Since Saturday am, as the Roshi River's water level began to recede, landslide removal and diversion work has begun with the assistance of the Road Department, Nepal Police, Traffic Police, and residents. Kunsang Tamang, a Roshi Rural Municipality-7 citizen working on the roadway, died about 9:00 p.m. A flood in the Roshi River swept away Kunsang Tamang, a Roshi Rural Municipality-7 citizen working on the roadway, on Friday around 9:00 p.m.
According to the Area Police Office Mangaltar, preliminary investigations have shown that the deceased Tamang, the office's supervisor, worked permanently at night on the under-construction BP Highway. Similarly, the District Police Office Kavrepalanchok has announced that seven individuals who were stuck in the Roshi River near Chowkidanda at the same time have been rescued. According to the authorities, the flood washed away a motorcycle and an electric vehicle.
Meanwhile, traffic police had been holding vehicles since Friday evening, when the road in the Roshi region of the BP Highway was blocked due to rain. Vehicles were halted at the highway's entry points, Kavrebhanjyang and Bhakunde in Dhulikhel, as well as Nepalthok and Mangaltar, which enter the capital from the East.
