The Dushanbe-Kulob-Darvoz-Khorog highway has been reopened for traffic but through a temporary road built on the section between the villages of Shirgovad and Yoged in Darvoz district of Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).
Recall, the mudflows that occurred on the Afghan bank of the Panj River on July 8 damaged dozens of houses on both sides of the Tajik-Afghan border and blocked the section of the Dushanbe-Khorog highway between the villages of Shirgovad and Yoged.
The mudflows carrying the mass of slurry with them reportedly blocked the river, forming a lake. The river burst the banks, flooding the Khostav village in GBAO’s Darvoz district.
Twenty-two houses were reportedly damaged by the flooding. No injured was reported. The flooding victims were temporarily housed in tents.
Russian servicemen on July 13 tried to destroy the mass of slurry that blocked the river using more than 100 kilograms of TNT, but they failed.
Colonel Yaroslav Roshchupkin, an aide to the commander of Russia's Central Military District, says the Central Military District command has received an appropriate appeal from Tajikistan’s authorities.
The mudflows left several people dead in Afghan Darvaz, according to the press center of Russia’s Military Central District.
Later on, Chinese specialists were reportedly involved in repairing the Dushanbe-Kulob-Darvoz-Khorog highway.
At end of last week, several heavy trucks and special machines were sent to the flooding site in Darvoz district from the site for construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP).
Repairing works were carried out in three shifts. Road builders managed to fill up the flooded section of the highway near the Khostav village, but the section of the highway between the villages of Shirgovad and Yoged is still under water. Road builders were forced to build a temporary road using hand-placed explosives.
The highway connecting Dushanbe and the GBAO administrative center, Khorog, through Kulob was closed for traffic during two weeks, but people could use the highway connecting Dushanbe and Khorog through the Sangvor (formerly Tavildara) district and the Khoburabot Pass.
The issue of resettlement of disaster-affected families to safer places is still under consideration, according to the GBAO administration.
