With the onset of monsoon, the Himalayan state of Sikkim has been witnessing heavy rainfall for the last few days. As a result of this, landslides have occurred in the state washing away several important roads.
The road connecting Singtam - Dikchu - Rangran - Mangan - Chungthang was washed away after heavy downpour on Thursday.
At around 6:15 pm yesterday, both sides of Rangarang were blocked due to landslides. Right after this, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Project Swastik sent its brave Karamyogis along with their heavy earthmoving equipment immediately on sites to clear the blocked road.
After continuous efforts of these Karamyogis, the road was cleared and opened for the traffic at around 10 pm.
Meanwhile, early this morning, there were reports of landslides at Singtam and Rangrang. This consisted of mainly loose stones and boulders which had slide from the mountain tops and covered the entire road, making it impassable for traffic.
While the BRO Karamyogis were on war footing to clear these landslides and road blocks, a flash flood on road Mangan to Chungthang washed away a portion of the road and a small bridge along with it.
The BRO Karamyogis have opened the entire road in record time, working throughout the night and all through the day in inclement weather.
While the efforts of the BRO has been commendable and as always, they would continue to keep the roads of Sikkim and North Bengal open, all tourists and locals are advised to avoid the routes of recurrent landslides during heavy rainfall times and are requested not to lineup on road blocks to prevent any injury to personnel and damage to vehicle due to sudden landslides or flash floods.
