The government has attached priority to the repair of a bridge over Timure Ghattekhola in Rasuwa with an aim to resume vehicular movement between Nepal and China within a week.

The only Nepal-China link road currently in operation has remained defunct after floods damaged the bridge on Friday.

A team from the bridge division of the Department of Roads (DoR) inspected the bridge on Sunday and suggested measures for making it functional urgently. “Repair works will begin soon,” DoR Deputy Director General Mukti Gautam told the Post.

According to him, floods have severely impacted the base pillar, the reason why the bridge is out of service. The department has taken measures to make it functional temporarily by inducting big boulders to support the base. Works for permanent reinforcement will take at least two months to begin, according to Gautam. “Water level needs to be low for us to begin permanent maintenance work,” he said, adding that this would happen only after a couple of months.

More than 300 containers and hundreds of light vehicles have been stranded due to the halt in vehicular movement, authorities said. According to the Department of Customs, the government is losing revenue worth around Rs10 million daily as overland cargo movement between the two nations has come to a standstill.

The Rasuwa customs point has been the only trading route with China after the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake severely impacted the road infrastructure at Tatopani transit point of the Nepal-China border. With the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board (NITDB) signing an agreement with a Chinese company to resume construction of the dry port in Tatopani in the first week of May, hope has grown for early opening of the Tatopani point.

The Chinese company will also upgrade Kodari Highway in four months after completing works at the dry port. A Chinese team is currently repairing the main office, customs office and yard, storage, check pass yard, check post, bank building and residential structures damaged by the earthquake.

The Chinese government will also upgrade the road from Khasa to Miteri Bridge on the border. The bridge connects Tatopani in Sindhupalchok with Khasa in Tibet, China.