Kathmandu, October 6 Infrastructure Development Minister Sunil Lamsal has said b

From Onlinekhabar English

Kathmandu, October 6 Infrastructure Development Minister Sunil Lamsal has said bids will be invited before Dashain to rebuild structures damaged in the Bhotekoshi–Trishuli flood, and that efforts will be made to rehabilitate displaced people. He also said the process of amending existing laws is moving ahead so that infrastructure is built in a way that natural disasters cannot damage. “The present practice is exactly the opposite, and we are now departing with a major paradigm shift,” he said. “The government is taking that forward.” From now on, he said, bridges must be designed to withstand even high floods. Minister Lamsal said current designs are based on estimates of how high floodwater will reach, but pay no attention to the stones, gravel and sand that pile up every year. He said bridges will be built with that in mind. “Compared with the hills, the Tarai has much more deposition. But existing law does not allow extraction from forest and national park areas,” he said. “When we extract more than the allowed amount, it causes erosion problems, and when we don’t extract, it damages infrastructure too.