The Tianshun Road and Bridge Company, a Chinese company, on Tuesday started the reconstruction works of the Miteri (friendship) bridge that connects Tatopani in Sindhupalchok to Khasa in Tibet. The bridge that was damaged by the 2015 earthquake has remained closed for the past three years.

“We have started constructing a part of the bridge that was damaged by the flood,” Dabuti Sherpa, the Vice Chairperson of Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality quoted a Chinese bridge contractor as saying.

Sherpa said the Chinese contractor plans to complete the reconstruction within May 2019.

Similarly, the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) has been repairing the Liping road in Sindhupalchok that was damaged in the 2015 earthquake and the Bhote Koshi floods the next year. The Liping road that connects the dry port in Larcha is also a part of the Barhabise-Tatopani stretch. The Chinese government has directed the CRCC to complete the construction of road within eight months.

The corporation had just completed with the reconstruction of the Tatopani-Piplang road.

 The Chinese government started building the Rs1.2 billion dry port in Larcha five years ago. Although the international standard facility was slated to be ready within two-and-a-half years, it was stalled in August 2014 due to the floods and landslides in Jure and the devastating earthquake that followed. CRCC officials said the Chinese central government has directed them to complete the dry port within three months.

Locals are hopeful that the border will open soon. DSP Krishna Gopal Gurung of the Armed Police Force said the local people are being happy after construction works started. High-level officials from China are inspecting the Tatopani area time and again.