North grows desperate as monsoons approach and road conditions refuse to improve

WANGCHUK BHUTIA
MANGAN: North Sikkim’s woes with the road conditions are already severe, and with the pre-monsoon showers having already opened up, the road users are growing panicky with what the eventual monsoon will do to the half-finished litter of cutting and scrapping that litters roads in the district. As their complaints grow, so does their criticism of the Border Roads Organisation, the obvious target since most of the roads in the district fall under their care and because most of the roads are consistently unreliable.
Apart from having to travel longer distances because of the detours road commuters are forced to take, and the attendant higher fares, the people here are also disturbed by the risk to life and limb posed by such poorly maintained roads.

The Mangan-Singtam highway which is the lifeline for North District hits its worst at 4th Mile Lower Mangshila [pic above] and Thingchim Zero where incomplete excavation work and devastated black-top deliver a slush which is difficult for most vehicles to negotiate.
At present, the light vehicles are plying through Dzongu via Sangkalang.
Though, this highway receives a high number of vehicles due to the power projects underway in North Sikkim, which also put the roads under more stress, they are not reinforced strongly enough to take the load even during the dry winter months.
Even the road near Sangkalang has become so unstable that vehicles sometimes have to take a detour through Ringdang-Singhik via a hydel project site to reach Mangan.
Speaking to NOW!, Dilliram Limboo, the ward panchayat of Tibuk Lower Mangshila informed that the people of Lower Mangshilla are being inconvenienced extensively, because the lighter vehicles headed for Mangan no longer come through their area [since they are travelling via Dzongu].
Similarly, the Gangtok-Mangan highway is also in poor condition at several places. In fact, the issue was also highlighted by the Kabi-Lungstok MLA, PHE Minister TT Bhutia with Judge SP Wangdi of the Sikkim High Court when the later was in Kabi recently for a Legal Awareness programme.
Driven to desperation, the Minister had appealed to Justice Wangdi to look into the connectivity woes of the people of the area.
The people of Dikchu further highlight that the BRO had assured improvement of the road condition during the visit of DC East to Jang village last year. The black topping works which followed covered only 2 kms when BRO had in fact committed to complete the black topping from Dikchu to Thingchim Zero before the year 2010 ended.