LANDSLIDE ON SIKKIM’S HIGHWAY CAUSES MAJOR TRAFFIC JAM

NATIONAL HIGHWAY 10-

The Sikkim’s Arterial Highway, National Highway 10 (NH-10) is the highway that connects Sikkim to the rest of the country. As Sikkim is a hill station, the highway is also a hilly road. Hence, the Sikkim Arterial Highway is prone to landslides many times a year.

HEAVY RAINFALL IN NH 10-

For some time now, the region was experiencing heavy rainfall; because of that several landslides occurred on 11^th July 2021.

• This was during the daytime when a lot of vehicles were running on the Highway.
• On Saturday, small landslides occurred but they did not cause much hindrance on the road.
• But a major landslide happened on Sunday blocking the highway badly.
• This happened in the 29^th Mile area, near Rambi in West Bengal.

STRICT COVID RULES IN SIKKIM-

In Sikkim, the cases of covid-19 are still rising rapidly.

• The government has imposed strict rules on people entering or going out of the state.
• Mandatory tests are required to be done for people entering the state.
• And the state government has also implemented a time frame, only within which people are allowed to enter or travel outside Sikkim.

SEVERAL LANDSLIDES IN NH 10-

Several landslides occurred on the Arterial Highway on Sunday, this week.

• This caused a blockage on the road connecting Sikkim to the rest of the country. This in turn caused a major traffic jam on the Highway.
• Many motor vehicles, including commercial and non-commercial vehicles, were stuck in the jam.
• Long queues of vehicles were seen that were that stretched up to 1 km on both sides.
• Many light motor vehicles were seen taking a U-turn and taking the Darjeeling route in West Bengal to reach their destination.

STEPS TO CLEAR THE BLOCKAGES-

Immediate actions were taken by the Border Road Organizations (BRO) to clear the blockage.

• Workers and officials of the BRO worked to clear one-way to ease the traffic during the day.
• But, the continuous rainfall made it difficult for the Bro workers and officials to clear the path, said a few BRO officials.