Stranded tourists back

Nirmal Mangar, TT, Gangtok, May 29:More than 1,000 tourists were stranded at Lachen in North Sikkim for more than 24 hours after multiple landslides blocked NH31A yesterday.

The roads were cleared this morning and the tourists returned to Gangtok after 3pm. The tourists were returning to Lachen after seeing Gurudongmar Lake when the North Sikkim highway was hit by multiple landslides around 1pm yesterday.

After the blockade, the tourists were accommodated in local hotels in Lachen.

“There was heavy rainfall yesterday, which resulted in multiple landslides between Chungthang and Lachen. The landslides disrupted traffic on NH31A. Our workers were deputed to all the locations to clear the slides,” said S.S. Powel, the chief engineer of Border Roads Organisation.

“Around 600 tourists from Bengal were stuck in Lachen because of the landslides yesterday,” said Mingyur Bhutia, the sub-inspector of Chungthang police station.

“The road to Gurudongmar Lake is still blocked at one place and would be restored by tomorrow. The road to Lachung which leads to the popular tourist destination Yumthang has been cleared,” said Powel.

The distance between Gangtok and Chungthang is 115km and the distance between Chungthang to Lachen is 28km.

In a separate incident, in Toong, four tourists from Ahmedabad died and four others were injured after their vehicle fell 100 feet below the North Sikkim highway when they were returning from Lachung.