NH 10 caves in at Swetijhora, 2 tourists from Bengal, 1 from Jharkhand missing

EOI, SILIGURI, OCTOBER 4, 2023 : National Highway 10 connecting West Bengal with Sikkim has been badly damaged due to the rising level of river Teesta. As a result, National Highway 10 is currently closed to traffic, leaving commuters and tourists in the lurch. 

Many people are stranded in Siliguri. It would take some days for traffic to restore on the NH 10,. It was learned. With the upcoming Puja season, the flow of tourists is increasing to different tourist spots in north Bengal and Sikkim. 

Every day a large number of domestic and foreign tourists as well as daily commuters leave for Sikkim by bus from the Sikkim Nationalized Transport Bus Terminus. Since Wednesday morning, however, the movement of buses from the terminus has been suspended. 

An average of 30 buses runs between Siiliguri and Gangtok daily. But since this morning that service has been stopped by the Sikkim government. Tourists from different places coming to the bus terminus on Wednesday morning were left stranded. Some small vehicles are running to Sikkim via Gorubathan but the drivers were charging double the usual rate. The New Jalpaiguri railway station was also a picture of chaos. 

Labourers reaching NJP on the way to Siliguri were stranded. Without enough money to afford a hotel., they were staying at the station premises. 

“We were travelling to Gangtok from Siliguri when our car was forced to halt in the Swetijhora area. 

The NH 10 had caved in as incessant rains had eroded the rock and soil below the road. Fortunately, all cars were moving slowly because of the rains, otherwise the cave-in could have actually swallowed a vehicle,” Dolma Bhutia, a college student going back home to Sikkim, told PTI over the phone. West Bengal Police officials said two youths from the Raiganj district, Swarnadeep Majumdar and Srikant Majumdar, and Ishan from Jharkhand, went missing in Sikkim on Wednesday. 

The three left from Sikkim on Saturday on a motorcycle trip. “Since Tuesday morning they could not be traced as their mobile numbers remained unreachable. We have contacted the Sikkim Police for help.”