Festival highway readiness has been ordered across Nepal, with Infrastructure Development Minister Er. Sunil Lamsal directing every division and project chief under his ministry to keep roads open and travellers moving safely through the festival period. The directive, announced on Saturday, responds to the fragile state of highways after weeks of continuous rain and flooding.
The minister said many highways and main roads remain in a sensitive and risky condition, where even normal rain or a small landslide can block a main highway. With festival travel at its peak, division offices have been instructed to keep heavy equipment, including dozers and loaders, and technical manpower in a state of readiness at risky road sections, so that any blockage can be cleared immediately.
What the directive requires
Under the festival highway readiness directive, offices must clear any road obstruction as soon as it occurs and stay in continuous coordination with the concerned agencies. Office chiefs and the relevant technical staff have been told to remain contactable throughout the festival period and to carry out their responsibilities with high alertness and readiness for emergency management at short notice.
The order covers the same road network that has seen repeated flood and landslide closures this season, from the Prithvi Highway and the Beni to Jomsom corridor to the bridges and approach roads rebuilt in recent weeks. Keeping equipment pre positioned at known risk points is meant to cut the hours travellers usually spend waiting at a fresh landslide or washout.
Why it matters for travellers
Dashain is the busiest travel period of the year in Nepal, and a single blocked highway can strand thousands of passengers far from home. The festival highway readiness measures do not remove the underlying risk on rain soaked slopes, so travellers should still check road conditions before long journeys and follow official updates while the festival period continues. Eve Construction will keep tracking major blockages and reopenings through its news coverage.
Related reading: Prithvi Highway Galaundi traffic restored.
The standby order also follows a pattern travellers have already seen this month, when machinery and crews were deployed at short notice to reopen the subsided section of the Prithvi Highway at Galaundi and to clear repeated landslide blockages on other main routes. In those cases, having equipment close to the risk point shortened the closure from days to hours. The ministry is now applying the same approach across all divisions for the whole festival period rather than site by site.
For passengers, the practical advice is unchanged: allow extra time for long journeys, expect diversions where repairs are still under way, and check the latest road status before setting out, because a slope that is stable in the morning can still slip after fresh rain. Transport operators have also been part of the readiness picture this season, with the ministry coordinating with concerned agencies so that stranded passengers can be assisted quickly when a blockage does occur.
Source: Minister Sunil Lamsal’s Facebook post, October 17, 2026, https://www.facebook.com/ersunillamsal/posts/pfbid02sxkcb6smNoiMnMhEux652a1WtaJAoxpiFu4oYmNqdQGgrHbHv4RX3irH2h8TvCpCl