Govt not keen to find cause of BP Highway collapse

We are focusing more on maintenance work these day — Probe panel member

Kathmandu, March 5

It has been more than two weeks since a segment of road along the Khurkot-Nepalthok section of BP Highway caved in. But the government has not done anything substantial to find out the actual cause of the sudden collapse of the road near Shitalpati of Sindhuli district.

Though the Department of Roads had immediately announced that it would conduct a detailed study on the reason behind the road collapse and prepare a report, government officials did not seem keen to probe it. According to Tara Bahadur Karki, chief district officer of Sindhuli, a technical committee under DoR is probing the cause behind the damage and a technical report is yet to be prepared.

However, Bharat Kaji Deuju, project chief of the Bardibas-Sindhuli-Dhulikhel road (BP Highway), who is also a member of the probe committee, claims that the particular section of the road along the BP Highway caved in as a result of last year’s earthquake and the sudden erosion of soil from beneath the road. “As the reason is quite clear, we are focusing more on maintenance work these days and hopefully the damaged section of the road will be repaired and opened for traffic soon,” he said.

According to Deuju, a technical team of DoR and the Japanese government is at the site to help open the section for vehicular movement as soon as possible.

Claimed to be one of the finest highways in Nepal, the BP Highway was constructed with Japanese grant of Rs 21.5 billion and was inaugurated in July 2015. However, the recent collapse of a section of the highway has put a question mark on its sturdiness.

DoR also seems to be giving less priority to find out the real cause behind the collapse. “Work is going on to find out the cause behind the road collapse, however I have not been updated on the issue,” said DoR Spokesperson Daya Kant Jha.