DHADHING, Sept 26: The mass departure of people from Kathmandu valley with the onset of festive season has left the Prithvi Highway quite congested. The ongoing blacktopping of Naubise–Nagdunga road section has added to the woes of the passengers.
"I got stuck at Naubise for five hours. I was wondering why was there so heavy traffic jam. Later, I came to know that they were blacktopping the road at Thankot–Naubise road block," wrote Bijay Kumar KC of Dhading on his Facebook page.
"Some passengers might have medical emergency while others might be heading to some important work. This kind of haphazard plastering of the road without giving any prior notification is simply unfair and irresponsible from the side of the government," he further wrote.
Hundreds of passengers traveling via the road have been forced to suffer due to traffic jam. In the next few weeks, the movement of people along the highway will be even more due to the festival of Dashain and Tihar. The blacktopping was started only on Friday.
"The blacktopping has affected the traffic. A serpentine line of vehicles can be found stretching 30 kilometers toward Dhading," informed Police Inspector Ruk Bahadur Khadka. "As the road is narrow and full of bends, vehicles have to take turns to cross the road section through a single lane," he added.
Inspector Khadka further stated that managing the traffic jam has become even more challenging 'as the Department of Roads carries out the blacktopping at the peak hour'.
The blacktopping starts at 10 am and this is the time when night buses enter the Kathmandu valley. The long hours of traffic jam has been causing massive inconvenience to the commuters.
"People have been very hard hit, we have asked the Department of Roads to halt the blacktopping," said Khadka.
Meanwhile, Krishna Adhikari, Chief of the Department of Roads, Chitwan defended blacktopping saying it is being done for the convenience of the passengers.
"Dashain and Tihar are just around the corner. We have started blacktopping now so that the road gets smooth by Dashain," he said, adding that the blacktopping is going to be over by Thursday provided that the work is not affected by rainfall.
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