Kurseong Rohini Road: DGHC takes up Rohini repair - Hill council to collect toll to recoup cost

Darjeeling,TT Dec. 28: The DGHC today started the repair of Rohini Road on its own and decided to collect toll from vehicles once the work was completed.

The bad condition of the 13km-long road had forced taxi drivers to take an alternative route via Mirik to travel from Siliguri to Darjeeling from December 7.

With the new route guzzling more fuel and entailing an additional travel time of 45 minutes, taxi drivers had decided to increase the fare for Siliguri-Darjeeling ride from Rs 100 to Rs 140 a person. However, it is not clear whether the fare will come down once the repair is completed, as the DGHC will impose toll on vehicles.

“Repair of the Rohini Road has started and we expect the work to be completed in the next three months,” said DGHC administrator Anil Verma.

The DGHC took up the work as its efforts to repair the road on the BOT (build, operate and transfer) model failed.

“Since the model was being introduced for the first time in the hills, it called for more negotiations (with the interested parties). As time was running out and we were losing on workdays, we decided to start the repair ourselves,” said Verma.

The cost of the repair has been pegged at Rs 10.7 crore. “We have decided to collect toll from every vehicle plying the route. The rate will be fixed later,” said the DGHC administrator.

The DGHC is expected to recoup the repair expenses as a substantial number of vehicles use the Rohini road, which was constructed around nine years ago. With NH55, the main road link between Siliguri and Darjeeling, closed for over one-and-a-half year, even heavy vehicles bound for the hills were using the Rohini route to reach their destinations. Many believe the condition of the Rohini stretch deteriorated because of the heavy vehicles.

Taxi drivers from Darjeeling and Siliguri had gone on strike on December 6 to protest the poor condition of the road. The agitation was withdrawn following the intervention of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung.

The Morcha convened a meeting where it was decided that the taxis would skip the Rohini route and would instead use the circuitous Mirik route. The fare, too, was increased from Rs 100 to Rs 140 a person.

Told about the start of the repair on the Rohini stretch, Pranab Rai, a driver said: “It is good to hear that the repair has finally started. We just hope that the repair is carried out properly so that the road can last for long. In the hills, roads are generally washed away during the monsoon.”

The route via Rohini helps vehicles skirt two landslide-prone points between Simulbari tea estate and Kurseong on NH55 or Hill Cart Road. The estate is 15km from Siliguri.