A 70-metre stretch of the recently widened Narayangadh-Muglin road in Gaighat, Chitwan, has started to crack and sink.

Officials said the road started sinking from Tuesday, affecting traffic on the country’s busiest motorway.

The damaged portion of the road has been cordoned off for maintenance. The undamaged part of the road has been kept open, where vehicles take turns to pass, one way at a time.

This is the second time that the Narayangadh-Mugling road has witnessed premature damage in three days. On Sunday, a 50-metre section of the road in Jugedi, also in Chitwan district, had slipped. The road slippage in Jugedi was caused because the contractor had used loose dirt to add width to the road section before tarmaking it.

The road damage at Gaightat, however, was not a result of shoddy workmanship, claimed Shiva Khanal of the Narayangadh-Muglin Road Project. The most likeliest cause for the latest damage, he said, was heavy rains of past couple of days.

Achyut Koirala, consultant geologist for the project, alos claimed that the expansion work did not contribute to the damage. A team of geologists and engineers inspected the damaged road section on Wednesday. Almost 98 percent of the Narayangadh-Mugling road expansion work has been completed so far. The project began three years ago.

Landslide obstructs Beni-Jomsom road

MYAGDI: Traffic along the Beni-Jomsom road section was obstructed for hours on Tuesday night after a massive landslide occurred at Annapurna Rural municipality-3 in Myagdi district. Police said traffic resumed from 3pm Wednesday after the landslide debris were cleared.

Passengers heading towards Mustang and those returning from Mustang via Beni were affected by the road obstruction.