Slides block highway

Gangtok, July 13: Two landslides near Singtam on NH31A cut off Sikkim’s only road link with the rest of the country for almost two hours today.

Traffic was restored around 2.30pm.

The first landslide occurred at 32nd Mile near the Water Garden Park around 12.30pm followed by another at Martam Jhora after 15 minutes.

Around 200 vehicles, 20 of which were carrying tourists, were stranded on the highway.

Singtam is 24km from Gangtok.

“Debris and boulders were removed as soon as news of the slides was communicated to us by the police station. Two excavators were deployed. The landslides happened because of heavy rain on Thursday night,” said the chief engineer of the Border Roads Organisation, Brigadier Rajeev Sahani.

Around the same time two more landslides occurred at Lema between Chungthang and Lachen in North Sikkim, disrupting traffic for almost three hours.

Lema is 10km from Chungthang.

“Heavy rains made the clearing work difficult for us. The debris and the slush were removed by 3pm,” said a BRO official in Gangtok.