Traffic resumes on BP Highway

KATHMANDU: The BP Highway, which was blocked for around eight hours after a flood washed away a diversion at Rosi Khola in Roshi Rural Municipality-12, has now reopened.

Traffic resumed from 1:00 pm on Tuesday after a new diversion was built, according to DSP Shailendra Thapa, the joint spokesperson for the Armed Police Force (APF).

The flood occurred at around 8:50 pm on Monday, following continuous rainfall. According to the District Police Office, Kavre, efforts to reopen the highway had been underway since last night.

The washed-away diversion had been a temporary structure built after a previous flood in the last week of September last year.

Police also rescued 17 passengers, who were stranded on the highway after the diversion was washed away by the floods.

Meanwhile, search efforts are ongoing for a 33-year-old woman who went missing during Monday’s flood. Renuka Giri, a resident of Subbagau in Panauti Municipality-5, was swept away by the swollen Dhalmal Khola at around 6:00 pm while she was returning from a local fair.

Although police and locals conducted a search for the woman till late in the evening, she had not been found by late Monday. Search operations resumed Tuesday morning with the deployment of teams from Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and the Nepal Army.

Monday’s heavy rain also caused flooding in parts of the Panauti Bus Park area and damaged potato fields after floodwaters entered the farmland.