NH 10: Load limit for trucks

TT, Gangtok, July 26: The Bengal PWD department has issued an advisory on the movement of heavy vehicles on NH10, the highway connecting Sikkim, causing worry in the hill state regarding the availability of food items and other daily-use goods.

The PWD has advised that vehicles carrying more than one tonne of load should not travel up the NH10 for a week as a precaution because of several damaged stretches on the highway, an administrative official said.

Government sources, however, said no vehicle would be stopped from going to Sikkim.

In Gangtok, a spike in prices of vegetables today made officials review wholesale market transactions. Whether the Bengal advisory had any bearing on the hiked prices is unclear.

"We have learnt that trucks carrying vegetables could not come to Gangtok as there is a restriction on plying heavy vehicles on the highway. We are afraid if this conti-nues there might be shortage of vegetables in the whole-sale market. Today, only one truck of vegetables reached the market," said a wholeseller.

Generally eight trucks reach Gangtok from Siliguri every day.