NH-31A remains closed for entire day Expected to reopen by Thursday morning PRADIP LOHAGUN, KALIMPONG, 16 Jul 2014: NH-31 A, considered to be the lifeline of Sikkim and Kalimpong, remained closed for the entire day today, as GREF personnel toiled hard to construct the temporary bridge across the portion of the road, which was swept off by a landslide on Tuesday Morning. The road was ordered closed yesterday by the GREF for 24 hours to repair the damage. Although the bridge was not completed until late this evening, the GREF was positive the road will be ready for traffic by Tuesday morning. Notably, heavy rains on Monday night had led to a massive landslide at a portion of NH-31A at Likhu Bheer, 2km ahead of Teesta town. The roads were closed since 9:00am on Tuesday after GREF deemed the road dangerous of commuting and had planned to construct a 60 feet long temporary bridge. GREF commander Navin Kumar informed the bridge is being constructed using six steel panels, which has the capacity to withstand 40 tons of weight. He added the vehicles which have more than 40 tons of weight will have to wait for another 15 days. The GREF is expecting the bridge to be completed tonight and the road should be open for traffic by 5:00am on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, many travellers from Sikkim and Kalimpong, who were uninformed about the blockage, faced a lot of problem today. A daily service driver from Sikkim said it takes around 4 hours to travel from Gangtok to Siliguri via Teesta, but due to the blockage they had to take an alternate route via Teesta, Peshok and Darjeeling to Siliguri, which takes more than 7 hours. Similarly, travellers and drivers from Kalimpong and surrounding areas also faced similar problems. [The Echo of India, Hills News]
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 04:31:42 +0000
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