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The Department of Roads has made an initial estimate that at least Rs 30 billion will be needed to reconstruct and repair roads and bridges damaged by the Bhotekoshi flood.

According to Department of Roads Director General Dr. Bijay Jaisi, the department has already begun the reconstruction process.

“We have started a detailed assessment of the damage,” Jaisi said.

According to the department, 35 of the 41 bridges between the Miteri Bridge in Rasuwa and Malekhu in Dhading were damaged by the flood. Of these, 32 were completely destroyed, and three suffered partial damage. Six bridges remain intact, allowing people to travel between the two banks of the Trishuli River, the department said.

The Galchhi Trishuli Mailung Rasuwagadhi Road Project under the department issued a tender on Monday to repair and reconstruct the road from Betrabati to Timure.

Interested contractors have until Wednesday to submit their bids either at the project office in Nuwakot or by email. Contractors will be required to carry out 13 types of work, including constructing retaining walls, excavating roads and clearing landslides.

The department has deployed several senior officials to the road section in recent days.

According to the department, 40 kilometres of road in the section have been completely destroyed, while another 10 kilometres have suffered partial damage. The flood also swept away the Miteri Bridge at Timure, two Bailey bridges and bridges associated with hydropower projects.

When will Krishnabhir reopen?

A massive landslide at Krishnabhir along the Nagdhunga Muglin road, a key lifeline for Kathmandu, has made even pedestrian movement impossible. Part of the road has also subsided.

The section has been completely blocked since Sunday. Engineers at the Department of Roads remain uncertain about when the road at Krishnabhir can reopen.

They were unable to reach the landslide site for an on site assessment on Monday because rocks and soil continued to fall from above, while the river was eroding the slope from below. The department said it was using drones to assess the road.

The department has sent a team to study the Krishnabhir landslide. Jaisi said the team is expected to submit its report by Tuesday, after which the department will decide how to proceed.

Normally, roads through such terrain are reopened by cutting into the hillside or installing retaining walls and piles from below. But the department has yet to determine how to reopen Krishnabhir.

“We have not yet been able to decide how to reopen the road at Krishnabhir,” Jaisi said. “The landslide is still active.”

Suresh Paudel, senior divisional engineer at the Nagdhunga Muglin Road Project, said reopening the road under the current conditions could take five to six months.

He said it would be impossible to operate vehicles on the road before Dashain because the landslide is so extensive that even cutting through the hillside to create a new road would be extremely difficult.

Krishnabhir lies between Malekhu and Muglin, about 10 kilometres from Malekhu.

According to Paudel, the department is developing an alternative road along the opposite bank of the Trishuli River to provide a bypass for the Malekhu Muglin section.

The planned route will cross the bridge at Fishing and reach the opposite bank of the Trishuli, continue toward Benighat and then cross back to the original side of the river.

The route from Fishling to Benighat will be about 20 kilometres long. Around two kilometres of track still needs to be opened, Paudel said.

A department official said the river had already begun damaging the Krishnabhir section in June, but the problem was ignored.

“If proper repairs had been carried out in June, perhaps this landslide would not have happened,” the official said.

During an initial visit to Krishnabhir, the Muglin-Nagdhunga road was found deserted, while traffic on the Hetauda-Kathmandu road was heavy.

By Bhuwan Sharma