Kulekhani project issues first warning as Rautahat tells riverside families to move

Officials in Rautahat asked residents along the Bagmati river to move to safer places after Nepal's Kulekhani reservoir climbed to 1,528.15 metres above sea level by Saturday afternoon, with the level projected to reach 1,529 metres by evening, assistant chief district officer Hemraj Phuyal told the Kathmandu Post. Phuyal said officials had asked riverbank residents to move to safer places immediately.

The Kulekhani-I Hydropower Project, run by the Nepal Electricity Authority, Nepal's state power utility, said it would sound its first warning siren and send SMS alerts once the water passed 1,528.50 metres. The project issued its first warning on Saturday, October 31, citing rising water, the Post reported. If authorities open the main dam gates, Phuyal said, the release could send a sudden surge down the Sisneri Khola and into the Bagmati. As of the latest reports carried on Saturday, October 31, no outlet had reported the main gates open.

If you live along the Bagmati in Rautahat, or near the Sisneri Khola in Makwanpur, this is not a theoretical risk. In 2024, Kulekhani's gates were opened after the reservoir filled, Khabarhub reported. The project's own head, Tara Dutt Bhatta, confirmed the dam had overflowed overnight before the gates opened the next morning, Khabarhub reported at the time. The district administration then advised people along the Bagmati in Sindhuli, Rautahat and Sarlahi, and near Sisneri, Thingan Wesi, Phaparbari and Raigaon in Makwanpur, to stay alert, while Makwanpur chief district officer Tirtha Raj Chiluwal said security personnel and volunteers were on alert, Khabarhub reported.

This time, Makwanpur chief district officer Laxmi Prasad Poudel said preparations are already under way to open the outlet gates. He urged people to stay away from the river and be ready to move to safer ground if conditions worsen, the Post reported. Residents have also been told not to fish, collect firewood or graze livestock near the river channels.

The rain, linked to Cyclone Arnab, has also cut highways. The Department of Roads, the government body that manages national highways, said in a list published Saturday, October 31, that floods and landslides blocked the BP highway in Kavre, the Prithvi highway at Parewabhir in Dhading, the Karnali highway in Surkhet and the Mid-Hill highway in Khotang, and obstructed the Kanti highway at Chhapeli in Lalitpur, Republica reported. Near Mugling in Chitwan, a landslide at Simaldhara narrowed the Prithvi Highway to one lane, with three machines clearing debris, the area police office told DC Nepal.

Snow has closed trails and roads further north. In Karnali, heavy snowfall triggered a trekking ban in upper Dolpa since October 29, blocked the road to Hilsa and Limi in Humla, and prompted police to halt traffic in Mugu over landslide risk, district officials told DC Nepal and Rising Nepal.

What the coverage missed

The Melamchi Drinking Water Project has blocked the traditional Sundarijal road into Sindhupalchok and Nuwakot for a week to build a structure at Mahakal, without consulting local residents or elected representatives, resident Sushil Simkhada told RSS, the national news agency, in a report carried by OnlineKhabar. Project engineer Manoj Yadav said the land, already compensated, had been transferred to the project in survey records, and that the paved road had been delaying the project's work. The project's own documents list the route as a main road, RSS reported.

Nagarik News reported that the Jomsom-Korala road, blocked since Saturday morning by flood damage at Chaile in Mustang, had been repaired with a gabion wall and soil fill and reopened, project chief Tejaswi Sharma said. The Department of Roads list carried by Republica the same day still described it as completely blocked.

What we still do not know

• Whether Kulekhani's main dam gates have since been opened, and how much water is being released: the Kulekhani-I Hydropower Project and the Makwanpur District Administration Office.
• Whether Gokarneshwor municipality or any elected representative approved the Melamchi project's road closure: Gokarneshwor Municipality and the Melamchi Drinking Water Supply Development Board.
• A single, current count of blocked highway sections: the Department of Roads and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, the government's disaster response agency.