KATHMANDU, NEPAL – Passenger-filled buses, microbuses and trucks travel along Prithvi Highway, a 200-kilometer, snakelike road that connects Kathmandu, the capital, with the tourist town of Pokhara. The Trishuli River flows along the road. Over its rapid currents stretches a makeshift cable bridge with a small, rusted, square basket operated by a pulley system, popularly known as a “tuin,” which villagers in the foothills here use to cross the river.
The tuin here in Kumpur, a village in central Nepal’s Dhading district not far from the capital, is a rusted box that hangs from a wire with the help of two small, metal wheels. Passengers pull the worn plastic ropes that further connect the box to the wire to manually transport themselves across the river.
Beneath the midafternoon sun, people who live on the other side of the river make the treacherous journey via the tuin to make it to the highway, which connects to other roads, shops, schools and local trading outlets. The locals say that walking to the closest bridge to cross the river would take hours, but that, still, the tuin is risky.
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