Siliguri, Feb. 21: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s indefinite bandh may have spared NH31A, but the agitation is paving the way for a more potent force to snap the link between Sikkim and the rest of the country a few months from now.

The bandh has stopped work on the NHPC’s Teesta low-dam projects for the past 10 days. Senior officials of the power major fear that the disruption will ruin their efforts to reinforce the national highway, which follows the route of the Teesta, before the onset of monsoon.

“If the necessary measures to strengthen the highway are not taken on time, the road will suffer extensive damage during the rains,” said one of the officials on condition of anonymity.

The main road link to Kalimpong and Sikkim was blocked for days on end last year because of landslides, reportedly caused by the work on the dams and aggravated by the rain.

NHPC is also worried about the other long-term fall-outs of the disruption.

“If we miss the target we have set regarding our progress before the monsoon, we will not be able to open the Teesta Low Dam Project (TLDP)-III at Rambhi in June 2009 as planned,” the official said.

He added that the power major had planned to complete construction on the right bank and a bridge across the Teesta at the site of TLDP-III in the next couple of months.

“We will feel the effects of this bandh long after it is withdrawn,” he said. “Workers have begun to leave the site in search of employment elsewhere. It will take us a long time to get them back and resume work even after the shutdown is called off.”

The official added that NHPC employees were working round the clock to make the most of the dry season because in the monsoon the work gets affected anyway.

Of the 2,500 workers employed at the sites of TLDP-III and IV, more than half are from the hills, NHPC sources said. Work on TLDP-IV at Kalijhora is slated for completion by 2010.