HETAUDA: Churiyamai transit point on the East-West Highway lying between Bagmati Province and Province 2 is to be closed from today.

Makawanpur district COVID-19 prevention command post decided to stop the movement of people and vehicles to Hetauda through Churiyamai transit point after coronavirus infection in Province-2 districts increased.

A special stakeholders meeting was organised on Tuesday at the initiation of chief of Makawanpur District Coordination Committee Raghunath Khulal to discuss the matter.

Khulal said the stakeholders' meeting decided to make the lockdown more stringent through the command post.

Meanwhile, the command post at its meeting also decided to allow grocery and cooking gas shops to operate till 9:00 am only, while medical shops, veterinary and agricultural goods shops would be allowed to open all day. Likewise, meat shops and vegetable markets would be completely shut from tomorrow. Banks would be allowed to open from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm by maintaining social distancing.

Mayor of Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City, Hari Bahadur Mahat, who was also present in the meeting, said decision has been made to check the movement of people through the jungle in the Chure region of as people were found sneaking into Hetauda from the Tarai districts via this forest region.