NH 10 closed again for two days for essential repairs

Yowan Mothay, EOI, KALIMPONG, RANGPO,MARCH 29, 2024 : National Highway 10 will be closed from 6am on Saturday till 6 am April 1,Kalimpong District Magistrate Balasubramaniam T said on Friday. He said the closure had to be imposed for some repairs and back-cutting on the National Highway. He said since monsoon was only a few months away, PWD was carrying out maintenance work on national highways on a war footing. 

Apart from this, the PWD had definite plans for repair of the National Highway before monsoon. 

A landslide that occurred on Thursday at the narrow single-lane stretch between the Rabi Jhora and 29thMile on NH 10 was still vulnerable for further slides and could completely block that portion of the highway. 

Immediate back-cutting and protection work was necessary to enable the safe movement of traffic and proper removal of debris. The traffic restriction was necessary for a couple of days. 

As the space available for carriageway at the stretch hit by the landslide was narrow, it could pose a threat to the safety of the road users. As per assessment by experts, a complete closure of traffic was necessary as per expert assessment. 

The planned closure would be from 6a.m. on March 30 to 6 a.m. on April 1, he said. This would be the second time this month that the N.H. 10 would be closed for a significant duration. On March 24, the road was closed for four days. 

Particularly inconvenienced were passengers on the way to catch a train, a bus or a flight. The frequent closure of the highway has disrupted travel plans of tourists. Vehicles have to take long detours. It may be mentioned that parts of NH 10 had suffered major damage during the glacial lake outburst flood in river Teesta in October 23.