Desk by Karuna
The Tatopani checkpoint has been impacted by the state of the road for a while now. Since the beginning of June, landslides, steady rain, and landslides in certain areas have blockedthe Kodari road.
Since last year, the local government, Tatopani Customs, and border locals have made many requests to the road division office in Charikot to repair the damaged Kodari road. Due to the road division’s refusal to deliver the budget and habit of working during the rainy season, road maintenance has turned into “water in the sand.”
Since the earthquake, the Chinese Railway Construction Company Limited (CCRC), which has been rebuilding roads, has been flooding the roadways. The administration is aware that the Tatopani import has been impacted by the road issue. However, no one is interested in improving the roads.
In the Kodari area, the 26 km section of the Barhabise-Liping road has deteriorated the worst. When daily loaders are used to fix the flooded road, Kodari village is put in danger. Some houses have suffered flooding. Road travel is extremely dangerous since landslides are still happening in Sakhuwa, Baseri, Jhalebhir, and other regions.
Tatopani customs used to bring in 50 million rupees per day before the earthquake. Today, it reaches 8 million each day. Due to traffic, Tatopani Customs has been unable to collect money. Apples are now being imported in large quantities from Khasa. When the road is occasionally closed and the truck becomes stuck in the center, the apples have already started to rot.
Narad Gautam, Chief Customs Officer of Tatopani Customs, said that the apples that have arrived in the Khasa region had already begun to rot. Gautam claimed that revenue collection has been affected for a few days. He said that the Melamchi Drinking Water Project imports a huge number of iron pipes, apples, dozers, machinery, and other items from China.
The hot water facility’s physical structure, which was destroyed by the earthquake and the Bhotekoshi floods, has not yet been reconstructed. Nobody even tried to pick it up. Neither governmental structures nor private homes were built. Nepal’s geography makes it difficult to develop physical infrastructure, and neither has been done. Since 2072 BS, Liping, which faces Khasa, has been destroyed.
In the meanwhile, the Chinese area is actively undergoing reconstruction. Chinese people are working round-the-clock to preserve the landscape by stopping Bhotekoshi’s erosion and floods. We are forced to observe as Bhotekoshi destroys our geographic features on the Nepalese side. In the Chinese area, the reconstruction of private structures from government structures is also underway. Since the earthquake, at least 100 Liping-area households have been forced to migrate entirely.
Source: CRI
