Recently I travelled down the 35km stretch of road along the Trisuli river from Mugling to Narayanghat on my way east. Since this road opened, it has become one of the busiest highways in Nepal, with the majority of traffic for Kathmandu (and also Pokhara) using it in preference over the two older twisting hilly routes through Daman for Kathmandu, and Tansen for Pokhara. During the monsoon last year, I counted 94 landslides in the 25km section south from Mugling. Sadly, little repair has been carried out. What used to be a 30-minute ride can now take over an hour, earning the name 'road from hell' from tourists travelling to Chitwan. What will happen if the few remaining sealed sections of the road are washed away in the next monsoon? The only way into Kathmandu will be via air or the old Hetauda-Daman road. Chitwan National Park will find its already devastated businesses an extra 10 or 15 hours away from Pokhara or Kathmandu. Aside from tourism, the setback for communities dependent on these routes will be terrible. Surely it would be cheaper to carry out some urgent maintenance work now, rather than rebuild the whole route after the 2004 monsoon?

Marco Peter,
Asha Clinic, Pokhara