The Balewa–Ridi section of the Kaligandaki Corridor in Baglung district was completed in the second week of June, six months ahead of schedule, and handed over to the project.

Since the start of the monsoon, however, the section has been regularly blocked by landslides. Frequent slides at Binamare in ward 5 of Jaimini Municipality and at Baralbhan, near the entrance to Gulmi’s Kaligandaki Rural Municipality, have made it impossible for vehicles to pass.

On the under-construction Maldhunga–Balewa section, haphazard stone quarrying and material extraction have triggered further landslides, leaving the road closed since Saturday morning. A large slide at Kalakhola in ward 13 of Baglung Municipality has not been cleared. Locals said the landslide began at a site where stones and gravel had been removed.

The contractor is working on four separate sites from Maldhunga to Kalakhola. It has prioritised quarrying quality stone over building the road on time. Locals said rocks have been blasted, gravel produced and sold, and hillsides dug up. The latest slide also occurred at an excavation site.

Bidari Construction, which was awarded the Rs990 million contract, has failed to complete the section despite the expiration of the deadline. Ward chair Narayan Sharma Paudel said quarrying was already causing landslides, adding that repeated blasting could cause dozens more. “We made many attempts to get the contractor to finish the work on time, but they kept delaying, and now the landslide risk has increased,” he said.

Although the project design required gravel to be brought in from other sites, the contractor excavated nearby hills after finding suitable material and allegedly selling some of it elsewhere.

No work has been done to clear the road in the past two days. Deputy Superintendent of Police Basanta Regmi said motorists were being advised to use alternative routes as the rockfall made immediate clearance impossible.

“We are trying to reopen the road through coordination,” he said, adding that the rain had made work difficult.

A separate slide at Eklesal has also blocked the road. This landslide has put another road, from Maldhunga to Kushmisera, at risk. Regular slides mean the road is closed whenever it rains heavily.

Unplanned road cutting has also created landslide risks at Sahasradhara, Maldhunga and Nayapul on the Mid-Hill Highway. Rainfall causes piles of gravel to block the road, while quarrying vibrations have dislodged large boulders from old slide sites. A huge boulder that fell last week near Maldhunga remains uncleared, forcing vehicles to pass at risk.

“Long-distance and night-service buses are at particular risk,” said Umesh KC, chair of the Dhaulagiri Gandaki Transport Company. “For two weeks, the debris has not been removed.”

Mid-Hill Highway project engineers said one-way traffic has been enforced in some areas because further blasting could trigger more landslides.

At Bihun, Dudilabhati and Malma on the highway, vertical slopes have been cut without base reinforcement, causing slides that have repeatedly blocked both night and day services up to three or four times a week, said Tej Bahadur Thapa, chair of ward 9 of Galkot Municipality.

“The upper section has been cut, and the lower section has been pulled by the slide,” he said, adding that even settlements above the road are now at risk.

Officials say flawed road design has created further hazards in several locations, including Jhankristhan in ward 1 of Galkot Municipality, Eklesal in ward 10 of Baglung Municipality and Kalakhola in ward 13.

District Coordination Committee chief Amar Bahadur Thapa said the contractor and project office had been asked to work in an organised and sustainable way in these areas.