Kathmandu. As many as 677 workers have gone missing and 515 trucks and containers have gone missing due to the floods in the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa on August 26.

The Federation of Truck Transport Entrepreneurs of Nepal presented the data at a meeting chaired by the Director General of the Department of Transport Management, Rajiv Pokharel. Presenting a preliminary report on the loss of lives and property caused by the floods, the federation said that the number of incommunicado workers and missing trucks and containers may increase further.

The Federation has said that the Bhotekoshi floods have caused a lot of damage to the public transport and transport sector and the exact details of the actual damage should be collected. President of the Federation, Rajendra Bikram Baniya, said that relief and compensation should be provided to the affected businessmen and workers by making a realistic assessment of the damage caused to the transport business due to the floods.

The Ministry of Infrastructure Development has formed a committee to prepare a report along with opinions on the assessment of human and physical damage caused by the floods, the basis of compensation and other related issues.

The committee has been formed under the coordination of Director General Pokharel of the Department of Transport Management as per the decision of a meeting held with transport entrepreneurs and stakeholders under the chairmanship of the minister on September 12. The committee has been given the responsibility to submit a report with suggestions to the minister within 15 days.

The committee comprises representatives from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, minister’s secretariat, transport entrepreneurs’ associations, Federation president Rajendra Bikram Baniya and Federation general secretary Badri Prasad Chaulagain among others.

According to the Ministry, the committee will compile details of human and physical loss caused by the Bhotekoshi floods in the public transport sector and prepare the necessary basis for determining the compensation.