Damauli, July 28

The Damauli-Dumre road section along the Prithvi Highway has reopened for two-way traffic from Monday night following a week-long disruption.

The highway was closed for traffic after its part at the Damauli-Dumre section caved-in on July 21 due to incessant rains. Tanahu’s Assistant Chief District Officer Chitrangat Baral said the route had been readied for the two-way operation with the completion of its restoration. The works to restore the road had begun on Saturday and an alternative route was used throughout the disruption period.

Meantime, Kotre-Muglin road section along the Prithvi Highway last fiscal year reported road causalities less than the previous fiscal year. The data shows that in fiscal year 2067-77 BS, 44 people including 30 male, 11 women and three minors lost their lives to accidents occurred along the route and the figures in the previous two fiscal years were 61 and 65 respectively, District Traffic Office chief Resham Ranabhat said.

The route is considered as one of the vulnerable zones to accident. The cases of road accidents here in the last fiscal year were 88 preceded by 106 and 112 in the two previous years. The road accidents in the past three consecutive years are in decreasing trend. During the COVID-19 lockdown, eight people: seven male and one female were killed in the road accidents here.

The accident trend manifests that motorcycles are relatively more vulnerable to accidents.