Kathmandu, Ashoj 22 (Oct 8): The Nepali Army has started a campaign to repair and re-operate the damaged roads. Spokesman Assistant Rathi Gaurav Kumar KC said that 6,000 personnel are working to repair highways, strategic bridges and rural roads damaged by the incessant rains in the second week of October.
Along with the estimates of the Department of Water and Meteorology, the army prepared 14,000 manpower for disaster response. He informed that the disaster-affected districts of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur along with Kavrepalanchok, Sindhupalchok, Makwanpur, Sindhuli, Ramechhap and Panchthar have been immediately engaged in search and rescue. Highways and rural roads including BP highway, Arani highway, Madhyapahari Lokmarg, Tribhuvan Rajpath and Prithvi highway, concrete bridges connecting two districts have been constructed and manpower including army technicians have been deployed to operate the transport.
“As the main responsibility, the army technician has assisted the team of the road department for the detailed study of the damaged road in places of the BP highway under the Roshi Khola corridor and placing the ‘belly bridge’ on the Sunkosi river in Khurkot”, said assistant Rathi KC. On the initiative of the army, the landslides of Kanti Rajpath have been removed and the traffic has been started since Monday evening. “With the completion of the search, rescue and relief work in the first phase, the organization is deploying manpower for reconstruction and rehabilitation after determining the priorities”, said the spokesperson KC.
Under the leadership of Assistant Rathi for disaster management in the army, the Directorate of Disaster Management and its subordinates are active in Sundarijal and Chitwan in Kathmandu. Stakeholders say that a new strategy is needed to make disaster preparedness and response more effective by learning lessons from the damage caused by this year’s flood and the shortcomings in the response.Â
