The Krishnabhir section of the Prithvi Highway in Dhading reopened to two-way traffic Thursday morning, 18 days after floods washed away roughly 100 metres of the road. The collapse of the road was caused due to the seperate flood of Aug30, not the Aug 26 .
Construction of the alternative track began September 3, cutting through a nearby hillside for construction of around 270m road, curving around the 100m of the original road that was collapsed. The completion of the construction was followed by a trial run with heavy vehicles was conducted on September 13, and gravel-laying was completed by Wednesday evening, September 16, ahead of Thursday's 6 AM opening.
According to Dhiraj Dhakal, an engineer with the Nagdhunga-Muglin Road Project's western section, all work was completed Wednesday evening. The Ministry of Infrastructure Development mobilized manpower and equipment for the bypass construction.
The highway isn't fully back to normal everywhere as several sections between Nagdhunga and Mugling remain narrowed to a single lane due to ongoing flood and landslide damage, meaning Krishnabhir's reopening solves the worst chokepoint but not every disruption along the route.
This was Nepal's most stubborn post-flood infrastructure problem while other damaged sections along the highway were restored relatively quickly, Krishnabhir's complete collapse required building an entirely new track from scratch.
The reopening of this road restores Nepal's key route between Kathmandu and the rest of the country a highway that is used by roughly 14,000 vehicles on a daily basis.
Traffic began building up quickly Thursday morning as vehicles entered and left Kathmandu Valley, suggesting significant pent-up demand from 18 days of disrupted travel and goods transport between the capital and western Nepal.
