Kalimpong, July 15: Vehicles travelling
between Siliguri at one end and Kalimpong and Sikkim at the other end
of NH31A will be diverted tomorrow as the highway will be closed at
Likhubhir near here to enable the Border Roads Organisation to lay a
Bailey bridge.
Vehicles will have to take alternative roads to reach their destinations.
Light vehicles
going to and coming from Siliguri can take the Teesta-Peshok-Jorebunglow
road, while heavy vehicles can take the Damdim-Lava-Algarah route.
The highway has to be shut as a 15ft stretch has caved in partially at Likhubhir, 18km down from Kalimpong.
Both up and down
vehicles had to line up at either end of the road at Likhubhir and
negotiate the stretch in a single file alternately today. The highway
started sinking metre by metre since July 7 and last night’s heavy rain
rendered the stretch suitable for only one-way traffic.
Sources in the
BRO, which maintains NH31A, said it had decided to build the Bailey
bridge because of the fear that the tenacious road link could snap
completely in the event of further rain.
Navin Kumar, the
commander of the 764 Border Road Task Force, a wing of the BRO, today
said: “The bridge will be about 50 feet to 60 feet long. It can take the
load of heavy vehicles weighing up to 60 to 70 tons.”
He said work on laying the bridge would start at 5am tomorrow and it would be over by late afternoon or evening.(TT)