The carpeted stretch of Indira Bypass in Gangtok. Picture by Pema Leyda Shangderpa

Gangtok, Feb.10: The much-awaited carpeting of Indira Bypass, which was in a bad state for the past few years, started last week.

Project Dantak, a unit of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), has almost covered 1km stretch from the starting point of the 10.25km-long road. The bypass begins at Amdo Golai and ends at Penengla Bojoghari.

Indira Bypass was blocked for almost over two months during the monsoon following a landslide at Amdo Golai, some 20 metres from the place where former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had planted a silver oak tree in 1984.

The bypass is meant to decongest the NH31A that runs through Gangtok. It diverts heavy vehicles including the ones of the defence force from the national highway at Tadong and connects the North Sikkim Highway at Penengla above Gangtok.

N. Pradhan, who has a shop on the bypass, hoped there would be less dust in the area now. “We have to clean the dust every now and then because of vehicle movement on the bad road. Now we can expect less dust,” he said.

A. K. Singh, the assistant executive engineer of Project Dantak, said they would be laying 25mm thick bituminous macadam to be topped by another 45mm bituminous concrete, making the carpeting thick and strong for the heavy vehicles that ply along the road. “The work is being carried out keeping in mind the durability factor and is done in a fast pace. The drainage system is also being repaired along with the carpeting.”

Singh said he could not recollect when was the road carpeted last time. The BRO could not carry out the carpeting work because of encroachment at several points. “We had lodged a complaint with the East district administration which had issued notices to the encroachers,” he added.