Rescuers in Nepal are still searching for 51 missing people three days after a landslide swept two buses off the Madan Ashrit Highway. The death toll stands at 11. Three people were pulled out alive. The buses were carrying passengers through Chitwan District in Bagmati Province when heavy rain triggered the slide. The highway is now closed.
The Madan Ashrit Highway is not a minor road. It carries roughly 90 percent of all international traffic moving through Nepal. It connects Narayangadh to Mugling, a 36-kilometer stretch that links to the Prithvi Highway at one end and the Mahendra Highway at the other. Trucks hauling goods from India to Kathmandu use this road. So do buses full of pilgrims, traders, and families. Every day, thousands of people move along that strip of asphalt cut into steep hillsides. Now a section of it is buried under mud and rock.
The highway was widened not long ago. A 33.2-kilometer section was expanded from 5 meters to between 9 and 11 meters. That work finished in June 2018. The idea was to improve safety and ease congestion. The landslide on that same upgraded road killed 11 people and left 51 unaccounted for. The gap between intention and outcome is wide.
Heavy rain has been lashing the region. It triggers landslides and flash flooding. The Madan Ashrit Highway runs through terrain that is steep and unstable. Moderate rainfall can set off slides there. This time the rain was not moderate. Two buses were swept off the road entirely. That is not a fender bender. That is a catastrophic failure of the ground beneath the wheels.
What happens next is a question of logistics and grief. The missing are unlikely to all be found. Search operations in landslide debris are slow, dangerous, and often inconclusive. Bodies may be buried deep under mud or carried downstream by swollen rivers. Families wait in Narayangadh and Mugling for news that may not come. The injured are being treated, but their number is small — three. The dead are 11. The missing are 51. Those numbers dominate everything.
The economic effects will follow. The highway is closed. That means trucks are not moving. Goods are not reaching markets. Nepal depends on this road for international trade. Every day the road stays shut, supplies tighten and prices rise. The monsoon is not over. More rain is forecast. More slides are possible. The road may stay closed for weeks.
Nepal has built infrastructure fast. Roads, bridges, tunnels — the country is pushing to connect itself. But the terrain does not cooperate. Steep slopes, loose soil, and heavy rain make every road a risk. The Madan Ashrit Highway was supposed to be safer after the widening. It is not. The landslide proved that. The question now is whether the government will do anything different — build retaining walls, install early warning systems, reroute vulnerable sections — or simply clear the debris and call it done.
For the families of the missing, the answer cannot come fast enough. For the drivers and passengers who still use the highway every day, the risk remains. The rain keeps falling. The hills keep shifting. The road is still there, buried in places, open in others. People will use it again. They have no choice.
