Funds soon for hill highway sink zone

Siliguri, June 5.TT: The Centre has agreed to sanction Rs 55 lakh immediately to restore the road at Paglajhora after a team from the Union ministry of surface transport and roadways inspected the site while also visiting Tindharia earlier this week.

The team has also asked a committee of consultants to find out within a fortnight whether a Rs 75 crore restoration job on the road at Paglajhora was more cost effective than a new bridge across the damaged stretch.

Landslides at Paglajhora and Tindharia followed by cave-ins on NH55 almost two years ago had left these parts inaccessible. Travellers have to skirt the Hill Cart Road on the Siliguri-Kurseong stretch and reach Darjeeling either via Mirik or Mungpoo or Rohini.

According to the executive engineer of PWD (NH division-IX), Nirmal Mondal, the experts have promised “to sanction immediately" Rs 55 lakh sought for the temporary restoration of the road in Paglajhora, considered a sink zone prone to landslides.

“For Tindharia, the ministry had deputed consultants to study and submit a report on possible restoration plans. The committee had estimated Rs 75 crore for the restoration,” Mondal said.

“During the meeting in Darjeeling on Sunday, the experts said the committee should make a comparative study and find out if the amount needed to build a bridge on the stretch would be less than the Rs 75 crore sought for restoration. The consultants have been asked to submit a report within a fortnight,” he added.

The five-member team, comprising the director general of road development, two chief engineers and one expert each from IIT Delhi and IISC Bangalore, visited the affected areas on Monday.

In the course of the meeting, a proposal to change the alignment of NH55 to bypass stretches like Paglajhora was discussed but the plan was shelved. “Our priority is to repair these two stretches and restore traffic on NH55. In the next phase, World Bank funds would be used to widen NH55 to 10 metres. The plan to change the alignment would be included under it,” Mondal said. Currently, the highway is around five-six metres wide.

The PWD official also said that tenders would be floated soon to appoint a consultant to carry out the preliminary study for the construction of a bridge over the Teesta at Sevoke Bazaar.