Kh.Orgil-Erdene: Floods damaged 116 km roads in 13 provinces

The head of Auto Road Policy, Implementation and Coordination Department of the Ministry of Roads and Transport Development, Kh.Orgil-Erdene, gave an update on operations to fix road damages caused by recent flash floods throughout Mongolia.

How many roads were damaged by floods? Approximately how much investment went out the drain?

A total of 116 km of roads in 13 provinces faced serious damages. Our ministry’s preliminary estimates show that the total damages amount to nearly 1.35 billion MNT. If it continues to rain, there’s a high chance that the cost of damages will dramatically increase.

At what stage is the repair and recovery work progressing?

Agencies in charge of roads are working on extended hours to fix roads as soon as possible and ensure traffic safety. Right now, 145 workers of 14 organizations are doing repairs using 62 machines.

How much financing has been approved for road repairs?

Roads broke in Arkhangai, Uvs, Khovd, Zavkhan, Khuvsgul, Dornogovi, Tuv, Selenge, Bulgan, Govi-Altai, Uvurkhangai, Sukhbaatar, and Bayan-Ulgii provinces. Moreover, the 92 km, 94-95 km, and 98100 km sections of the main road between Ulaanbaatar and Darkhan-Uul Province were damaged. The 151-164 km section of Ulaanbaatar-Undurkhaan soum, Khentii Province was completely destroyed and roadside dams and trenches have become too narrow. Hence, these roads were closed.

In most cases, road damages occurred due to runoff-water. In other cases, the water drainage pipes, wooden bridges, dams and concrete pipes were broken. So far, we’ve budgeted 240.9 million MNT for repair and recovery operations.