2 dead after land caves in at Railway project site

Darjeeling: Two workers died at the Sevok Rongpu Railway project when the land they were digging caved in near Kalikhola at Kalijhora. Both the deceased belong to Jharkhand.

The incident occurred around 11:30pm on Sunday. "They were engaged in piling work for pillars of bridge number 3 when the land caved in. They were buried in the debris," stated Maninder Singh, project director, IRCON.

The bodies were recovered from the accident site at Kalikhola, Kalijhora under the Kurseong sub division and sent to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital for post mortem."The deceased have been identified as Karu Roy and Santosh Roy. They were residents of Giridi, Jharkhand," stated Manoranjan Ghosh, Additional Superintendent of Police, Kurseong.Incidentally, this is the third incident on the Sevok-Rongpu railway line, of the year. On June 18, incessant rainfall resulted in a landslide inside the railway tunnel on the Sevok Rongpu Railway project, killing two and injuring 7 others at Bhalukhola in the Kalimpong district.

On July 31, incessant rainfall had caused the inundation of Mamkhola that had washed away a tent of workers of the Sevok-Rongpu Railway project. 2 workers died in the incident.

During the tenure of Mamata Banerjee as the Railway Minister, the 44.96 km long railway link connecting Rongpu in Sikkim with Sevok on the Bengal side was given a go-ahead.

Foundation stone for the project was laid by her on October 30, 2009. The link will be of a total length of 44.98 km out of which 41.54 km will be in Bengal and 3.44 km in Sikkim. 38.64 km of the line will pass through 14 tunnels. There will be 22 (14 major and 8 minor) bridges.

Stations will include Sevok, Riyang near Rambi, Teesta Bazar (underground), Melli on the Bengal side along with Rongpu on the Sikkim side.