Road connectivity to Lachung restored, evacuation of stranded tourists to commence on Monday

The BRO teams cleared landslides, reconstructed damaged stretches and restored the dangerous breach near the suspension bridge at Phidang for one-way vehicular connectivity towards Lachung to pave the way for evacuation of stranded tourists via the Lachung-Chungthang-Shipgyere-Sanklang-Dikchu road, officials said.

Gangtok: With the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) restoring road connectivity to Lachung in Sikkim's Mangan district, evacuation of hundreds of stranded tourists will begin on Monday, officials said.

The BRO teams cleared landslides, reconstructed damaged stretches and restored the dangerous breach near the suspension bridge at Phidang for one-way vehicular connectivity towards Lachung to pave the way for evacuation of stranded tourists via the Lachung-Chungthang-Shipgyere-Sanklang-Dikchu road, they said.

The evacuation of around 1,500 tourists stranded in Lachung and Lachen and will begin on Monday, they said.

The tourists were stranded in north Sikkim as heavy rains battered Mangan district. Two bridges were partially damaged due to inclement weather conditions, they said.

The BRO said that a sudden cloudburst followed by incessant heavy rains on May 30 caused havoc in North Sikkim.

With rainfall exceeding 130mm, major damage occurred along the routes to key tourist destinations including Lachen, Lachung, Gurudongmar, the Valley of Flowers and Zero Point.

The disaster caused formation breaches at multiple locations, damage to bridges and large-scale landslides across vital road stretches, including the Dikchu–Sanklang -Shipgyere Road, Chungthang-Lachen-Zeema road and Chungthang-Lachung road.

These routes, which serve as essential links toward Lachen and Lachung, were left completely cut off.

Further, two crucial bailey bridges along the Lachen axis one at Minsithang and Zeema got washed away to cut off Lachen town both from the north and south side.

In addition, due to heavy flow in river Teesta, the earth near the bailey suspension bridge at Phidang got washed away. Thereby affecting the towers of suspension bridges very dangerously.