Three days of blocked Karnali Highway
Landslide damaged retaining wall at Galje, causing Surkhet-Jumla section of Karnali Highway to remain blocked for three days, stranding large buses, trucks, and construction materials. Kalikot police have reported a road collapse at a location where a landslide occurred three weeks ago. The Road Division Office Jumla has restored the road by building a retaining wall. Repair work is ongoing, but work has halted due to a hydraulic pipe burst. He said that a big equipment is en route from Surkhet and that the road won’t reopen until the upper rock has been shattered. According to him, it’s unclear when the road will reopen after the repair is finished. Trader Ratan Mahat reports construction materials and food supply trucks in Kalikot, Tadi, Bali, and Rajan Shahi have been halted.
Rain and runoff from Jiulo and Juvitha caused the landslide at the cliff close to Galje. Many cargo lorries were stopped as the retaining wall collapsed onto the narrow lane. According to Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, the chief district officer of Kalikot, the state of the road is unsuitable for huge vehicles to travel on. A machine has been brought in to break the rock after drivers, co-drivers, and passengers attempted to build a temporary wall since Thursday, according to Chandra Bahadur Gharti, police constable at the temporary traffic checkpoint at Khallagadh. Police report stranded vehicles from Surkhet to Jumla and Mugu, and those returning via Kalikot and Dailekh, due to frequent road obstructions during monsoons.
