Gangtok, June 4: Around 65 vehicles carrying 400 tourists were left stranded at Lachen-Lachung last night, after heavy landslides triggered by torrential rain hit the picturesque North Sikkim.
Sources in the tourism department said some of the cars started from Lachung at 3pm today after the Border Roads Organisation cleared the debris of the landslide at Theeng Bhir on way to Chungthang.
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| A rain-washed MG Marg in Gangtok on Monday afternoon. Picture by Prabin Khaling |
Two other landslides occurred at Thimchu on way to Lachen and Rang Rang Bridge on the Gangtok-Mangan-Lachung road. The BRO said it may take another two days to smoothen traffic at Lachen where the bridge over the Thimchu, a stream, has been washed away.
“We will create a diversion for the vehicles but it may take another two days to do that,” a BRO official told The Telegraph. The landslides started late in the afternoon, when the cars were about to start from Lachen-Lachung.
A tourism official said since the road had been cleared only at Theeng Bhir, the cars that started from Lachung would take the route through Lower Dzongu to avoid Rang Rang. The Rang Rang bridge is 8km away from North district headquarters Mangan. Cars that left for Lachen-Lachung yesterday too came back from Mangan today via Lower Dzongu.
The tourism department, which has been coordinating with Mangan officials, said all the tourists are safe and have been put up in hotels in Lachen and Lachung. The general secretary of the Travel Agents’ Association of Sikkim, Norgay Lachungpa, told The Telegraph that there were 150 hotels in Lachung- Lachen.
“Keeping landslides in mind, hoteliers in Lachung and Lachen always stock up on essential commodities that could last for a month,” Lachungpa added. Sources in the TAAS said around 250 tourist vehicles enter Lachen-Lachung daily during the peak summer season, which is expected to end by June 15.
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Met sources said the day temperature usually hovers around 15-16 degrees Celsius at Lachen-Lachung at this time of the year. “The maximum temperature recorded at Lachen yesterday was 15 degrees Celsius. In Gangtok, it was 23 degrees,” a weather expert said.“There are many beautiful places to see in North Sikkim. Tourists visit Yumthang valley and Zero Point from Lachung and Gurudongmar Lake from Lachen,” said a tour operator.
He said usually tourists from Delhi, Mumbai and Gujarat were more keen on visiting North Sikkim. “Those from Bengal prefer Changu Lake and Baba Mandir in East district.” Earthquake-triggered landslides had washed away parts of the North Sikkim highway last year and the region was out of bounds for tourists for at least three months.
A tourism official in Gangtok said: “We have requested the BRO to clear the roads as early as possible so that tourists do not face any kind of problems. Many tourists who were on their way to Chungthang returned to Mangan on Sunday night because of the rain. Nearly 400 tourists in 65 vehicles had gone to Lachen-Lachung on Saturday. They were supposed to come back yesterday, but could not because of the landslides. ”
The poor telecommunication network in North Sikkim had also added to the woes of the officials. “None of the mobile phones are working and the landline service is not good. We are getting information only through police wireless sets,” said additional district magistrate (North) Prabhakar Verma.
Nearly 2,500 tourists had spent a night in the army camp at Kyongshala near Chhangu Lake last week after a landslide struck 15th Mile.
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