After flash flood damages, Sevoke-Sikkim road to reopen on Thursday

Kolkata, Oct 18 (IANS) The Sevoke-Sikkim road, an important road link between Siliguri in North Bengal and Gangtok in Sikkim, that got devastated by the recent flash flood there, is reopening on Thursday.

The state public works department officials said that the repair work for the most important roadways link between north Bengal and Sikkim had been going on on an emergency basis.

“That process is finally over and the road link will be reopened on Thursday. This is a positive development since this Sevoke-Sikkim road link is in true sense the lifeline connection between the two states,” a department official said.

He also said that certain parts of the highway were damaged in a major way because of the flash flood. “So people commuting from North Bengal to Sikkim or vice versa had to approach through an alternative route that took much more time for commuting. But all those have been repaired and the road is ready to welcome commuters again,” the state PWD official said.

However, the tourist operators lament that because of the damage and repair- related closure of the Sevoke-Sikkim Road, several tourist bookings for the forthcoming Durga Puja were cancelled. According to them, the reopening of the road just a day before the Puja commences will not manage the loss faced by them because of the cancellation.

The state PWD minister Pulak Roy said that it was the instruction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to complete the repair work and open the Sevoke-Sikkim Road before the Durga Puja. “So our engineers and their supporting teams worked day and night to make that possible,” he said.