Convoy crawls, girl almost misses flight - Traffic jams prolong journey through NH31A

Siliguri-bound vehicles from Sikkim in queue at Melli on Friday

TT, Gangtok, Aug. 12: Deepika Chettri almost missed her flight from Bagdogra this afternoon as hundreds of vehicles moved at snail’s pace in a convoy from Rangpo to Siliguri to beat the indefinite bandh in the Darjeeling hills.

The 19-year-old girl is a resident of Gangtok and she was allowed to board a Spicejet flight from Bagdogra although she had come for check-in just 20 minutes before the scheduled time for the plane’s departure.

Like Chettri, many commuters are facing problems while travelling from Gangtok to Siliguri and vice-versa along NH31A.

Chettri, a second-year under-graduate student of Lady Brabourne College in Calcutta, had left Gangtok in an SNT bus around 5am today. “Our bus reached Rangpo around 7.30am and we had to wait till 9am as all vehicles bound for Bengal move in a convoy, escorted by police,” said the girl.

She said the journey was tiresome. “As hundreds of vehicles moved in a single file, there were frequent traffic jams. On the way, I called up the airline officials and told them about the problem. They said I could check in if I managed to reach the airport by 2pm,” Chettri told The Telegraph after reaching Calcutta.

She reached the airport in a taxi from SNT bus terminus in Siliguri around 2pm and could board the flight that left at 2.20pm.

All Siliguri-bound vehicles are allowed to proceed from Rangpo in convoys under police protection three times a day ---- 9am, 12pm and 3pm.

Raman Tamang, a resident of Gangtok, said he couldn’t recall a journey from Siliguri that took seven hours.

“The vehicles in the convoy were simply crawling. The SNT bus which I had boarded must have stopped dozens of times on the highway because of traffic jams,” Tamang said after reaching Gangtok this afternoon.

Usually, it takes four hours to reach Gangtok from Siliguri.

Priya Rai from Ranipool in East Sikkim said: “All shops along the route in the Darjeeling hills remained closed because of the shutdown. As there is no option to get refreshments, I would advise others to carry adequate water and snacks.”

A police officer at Rangpo check-post said managing traffic had become a major problem for the law enforcers.

“After the bandh was called, traffic at Rangpo has increased almost three times, compared to normal days. We have deployed extra police personnel to control traffic.”