Heavy rainfall triggers massive landslides, yellow warning issued

Darjeeling: Heavy rains after a dry spell of two days resulted in landslides at 29th Mile closing down the National Highway 10 to Sikkim.

Kalimpong received 42.7 mm of rain. At around 8:30 am on Saturday, the landslide occurred at 29th Mile. Traffic from Sikkim and Kalimpong to Siliguri came to a standstill.

Traffic to and from Siliguri was diverted through Peshok and Jorebungalow. The debris was cleared at around 1 pm on Saturday and the road was again thrown open. Again, at around 5 pm the road was closed down for traffic owing to fresh landslides.

"At around 7 pm, we managed to open a single lane. However, there were serpentine traffic jams owing to huge number of stranded vehicles on both sides of the slide," stated Uttam Pradhan, Assistant Engineer, PWD, Highways.

There is yellow weather warning for Saturday issued by the IMD. The Hills, including Siliguri, witnessed rains and thunderstorms. There is a forecast of rain in the next 24 hours as well.