Bikash Shrestha, who travelled to Mangaltar from Banepa on a motorcycle a few days ago, had his entire body covered in dust. Only his reddened eyes were clearly visible.

“It is difficult travelling on the monsoon-ravaged BP Highway. We cannot even see the road due to clouds of dust if big vehicles are around. The road is also full of potholes,” complained Shrestha.

The massive floods and landslides had damaged several stretches of the highway in the last week of September, 2024.

It has been five months since the late-monsoon disasters. “We don’t know when the damaged road will be rebuilt. Whether the highway section will stay in operation in the rainy season is anyone’s guess,” said Shrestha, a Kathmandu-based trader who travels along the highway often on business.

Sumitra Rai was travelling to her home in Okhaldhunga from the national capital on a passenger vehicle. “It’s a struggle on this road. But there is no alternative. The vehicles wade through streams and trundle on river banks at some places. Water will submerge the road when it rains,” said Rai.

“Workers were seen making temporary repairs at a few places. Government authorities have to initiate reconstruction of the damaged highway at the earliest so that it will be motorable even in the rainy season,” she said.

Like Shrestha and Rai, due to the delay in reconstruction, travellers are worried about what will happen to the road after the onset of the rainy season.

The devastating floods and landslides had swept away around 10 kilometre-long road stretch from Bhakundebesi to Nepalthok on September 27-28. The road was washed away in some places and severely damaged in others. New tracks were opened to link the road. The hastily built tracks are narrow, rough and dusty as they wind through the banks in some places.

The Road Division Office in Bhaktapur has finally begun repair works. According to Durga Prasad, an engineer at the division office, repairs started in the Boksikuna and Chiuribasjhyang areas along the Bhakunde-Nepalthok road a week ago and in the Chaukidanda area two days ago.

“Work is underway to change the course of the Roshi stream. The hastily built track runs nearly as low as the water level in places. We are trying to deepen the Roshi stream and increase the height of the diversion road,” said Prasad. According to him, the division office commenced the repairs, though temporary, in view of the rainy season. “Transport is possible even during the rainy season if the road diversion can be raised by some feet,” he added.

According to Prasad, the Road Division Office in Bhaktapur conducts temporary repair works at 14 different places along the Bhakunde-Nepalthok stretch. “Repairs will be completed before the rainy season. Works continue on a war footing in three places with the use of nearly a dozen bulldozers and excavators,” said Prasad. The division office plans to complete the repairs by April.

The BP Highway was built with Japanese assistance. The construction of the highway began in 1995 and it was completed in 2015, at the cost of Rs 21.5 billion. The single-lane 160 km highway links Banepa of Kavre to Bardibas of Mahottari through Sindhuli.

The highway was set to be built in 1958 during the tenure of Prime Minister BP Koirala, but the project didn’t see the light of the day after the 1960 political change. The highway is the shortest route connecting eastern Tarai and hills with the Capital.

The devastating floods and landslides severely damaged the Kavre section of the road in September last week. Suman Yogesh, chief at the Road Division Office, Bhaktapur, said reconstruction would begin soon. “The budget to rebuild BP Highway has been guaranteed. A notice will be published soon to tender works,” said Suman.

Last week, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba requested Japan’s assistance in rebuilding the road. During her meeting with Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Miyaji Takuma on Monday in Muscat, Oman, on the sidelines of the 8th Indian Ocean Conference, Deuba called for help to restore the key link between Kathmandu and eastern Nepal.