Lanthey to take another week to restore

MANGAN, 08 Oct: The road over Lanthey khola on the Mangan-Chungthang axis where around 80 metres of road formation was washed out by a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall on 19 September will take at least another five days to be restored, if the weather permits.
Two excavators have been deployed on both sides of the slide for restoration work, however, continuous fall of debris is delaying work at the site. Meanwhile, some transshipment of essential food items is being carried out at this spot. A ropeway has also been set up here to transship heavy loads and essentials across.
BRO officials at the spot point out that speculations on by when the road here will be restored are futile since every shower wipes out the repairs.
It may be mentioned here that the Lanthey slide was one of the most troublesome spots on the North Sikkim Highway for the past 20 years but had been holding up for the last few years until it collapsed fresh on 19 Sept.
Meanwhile, the Army Engineering Division has constructed a bridge at Chyandara slide near Singhik just half a kilometre ahead of Lanthey Khola as this spot too was washed out by a landslide on the same evening. The traffic here resumed on 05 October.

The Madness of Crossing Troublesome Lanthey Khola

While the smaller slides have been cleared along the Mangan-Chungthang highway, the monster disruptions at Lanthey [pix alongside] and Chiyandara remain unspanned. When the weather is clear, some risk the walk across to avail transhipment options which are now available. This remains a risky undertaking as the photograph amply illustrates, but there are hardy porters at hand who even risk making the journey weighed down with headloads for a small premium. As Ongdi Sherpa, one of the porters negotiating the Chiyandara and Lanthey slides with headloads of ration and vegetable provisions, says: “We are charging Rs. 200 for one sack of load and charging Rs. 150 per carton of beer for the carriage from Chyandara to Lanthey which is half kilometre but it is very risky for us to tranship the goods in such a dicey slide where anything could happen at any moment”. Meanwhile, BAC Mangan has arranged for light refreshments for commuters and other workers here at Chyandara, a provision being managed under the supervision of Dorjee Tshering Lepcha and Choden Lepcha.
[from WANGCHUK BHUTIA]