The National Highway 10, the main road that connects the Himalayan state of Sikkim and the mountain district of Kalimpong in Bengal with Siliguri and the rest of the country, will reopen for traffic from Friday.

Since August 8, vehicular movement on NH10 between Sevoke and Teesta Bazar was shut as a stretch of the highway had caved in at Birikdara near Sevoke. Vehicles bound for Siliguri from Sikkim and Kalimpong and vice-versa, had to take detours of an additional 70km.

On Thursday, the district magistrate of Kalimpong issued an order, saying that from Friday, light vehicles and minibuses with a maximum capacity of 32 seats would move through the stretch parallel to the Teesta river.

“After receiving the reports from the public works department, the decision has been taken to allow only LMVs and minibuses up to 32-seat capacity over NH10 from Rangpo to Setijhora (near Sevoke) from Friday. This traffic movement will be allowed from 6am to 8pm every day,” said Balasubramanian T., the district magistrate of Kalimpong.

A couple of days back, officials of the state PWD hinted that they had almost finished the restoration work at Birikdara. As the road had caved in, they had to cut down
parts of hills to make space to rebuild it.

In the order, the district magistrate said that vehicles would move in a single lane in locations where the road had earlier been damaged and was hence narrower now.

Among these include Selfie Dara, Bhuichaley, Birikdara, 26th Mile, 27th Mile, 28th Mile, 29th Mile, Liku Veer, Sixth Mile, Eighth Mile and Andheri.