Air evacuation of stranded tourists called off due to inclement weather

Amitava Banerjee, MP, 16 June 2024, Darjeeling: The air evacuation of around 1,200 tourists (as per official records) from North Sikkim, especially Lachen did not take place as per schedule on Sunday owing to inclement weather. 

Travel Agents Association of Sikkim (TAAS) has directed all travel agencies, especially those whose guests are stranded in North Sikkim, to reach Mangan in North Sikkim on Tuesday. This decision was made after the Dzomsa Pipon and Hotel Association, with the help of the minister and area MLA Samdup Lepcha, closely monitored the road status in Mangan district. 

“As the road condition till Tung is favourable (an air evac is not possible), tourists will be evacuated till Tung and then onto Mangan on foot as there are 3 to 4 landslides enroute. From Mangan the respective travel agencies will have to take responsibility to tranship them to Gangtok,” stated Ramesh Basnet, president, TAAS. 

Around 360 tourists are reportedly stranded and have been given refuge at the Chungthang Gurudwara. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is working on a war footing to restore the roads.

“Around 700 personnel and 20 excavators are deployed to address the issue of multiple landslides, ensuring faster communication to Mangan, North Sikkim,” stated a post from the spokesperson, Ministry of Defence. 

As rains continued unabated, National Highway 10 was shut down for a few hours on Sunday with rock slides on the road at Likhubhir. 

Though the debris were cleared and the road opened to vehicular traffic, the Kalimpong district administration and police made an appeal to vehicles traveling between Gangtok, Sikkim and Siliguri to use alternate routes via Kalimpong instead of taking risks of using the NH10, vulnerable to rock slides owing to the incessant rainfall. 

At around 8:30 am on Sunday vehicles were diverted from Sikkim and Siliguri from the Rangpoo and Coronation Bridge respectively owing to boulder slides at Likhubhir. At around 1:30 pm the road opened up, with the debris being cleared. “As the falling of boulders is intermittent, for the general safety public are requested to avoid the NH10 and use the alternative routes,” stated Balasubramanian T, District Magistrate, Kalimpong.

The Kalimpong to Darjeeling road via Teesta Bazar, Lopchu is still closed. Meanwhile Raju Bista, MP, visited the flood affected areas of Teesta Bazar on Saturday. Bista stated that given the strategic significance of the region, particularly in terms of national security, he has requested for a central team to assess the situation and take necessary actions to fix the damages at the earliest. 

“The Central government has allocated Rs 500 crore towards addressing the immediate repair and restoration of National Highway 10 (NH-10). Further, the Central government is preparing a DPR under the supervision of scientific and terrain experts for rebuilding NH-10 and expanding it by further 10 m, for which a budget of Rs 2000 crore will be additionally sanctioned,” claimed Bista in a media release. 

“Raju Bista has to stop the blame game. When the flash flood had struck on October 4, 2023, the GTA had done everything possible. The regions have been voting for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections for the past 20 years. 

What did the BJP-led Central government do? They did not give any funds nor did they declare this as a national disaster,” stated Anit Thapa, chief executive, GTA. 

Courtesy & source- Millennium Post

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/air-evacuation-of-stranded-tourists-called-off-due-to-inclement-weather-568177