A rain-swollen river washed away a diversion at Sunwal Municipality-1 of Nawalparasi West district on Thursday, obstructing traffic along the East-West Highway.

Hundreds of people travelling along the highway have been stranded after a flood in Somanth river swept away the diversion constructed in the course of the ongoing Narayanghat-Butwal road expansion drive, according to Deputy Superintendent of Police Bhoj Raj Pandey.

Authorities are having a hard time repairing the diversion due to continuous rainfall. The repair works will start once the water level in the river recedes.

Police said the vehicles from the east have been diverted from Bhumahi to Bhairahawa and from the west to Parasi via Sunwal.

The road expansion work along the Butwal- Narayanghat section of the highway has been snail-paced.

The delayed road expansion work has caused hardship to travellers and locals. It generally takes two to three hours to cover the road stretch from Butwal to Narayanghat. But now the travel time has more than doubled since the road expansion project began in 2019.

The widening work along the 114km section, one of the busiest road stretches along the east-west highway, was initiated with Rs17 billion loan assistance from the Asian Development Bank.