Vehicular movement along the bridge over Balason river on the northwestern end of Siliguri stopped suddenly on Wednesday morning after one of its pillars bent with the force of the water of the swollen river.
The 50-year-old bridge is a vital stretch of National Highway 31, the principal highway that connects Siliguri, some other districts of north Bengal and the Northeast with rest of the country.
The nearly empty Balason bridge Pictures by Passang Yolmo
Though road connectivity has not completely snapped, vehicles moving towards Siliguri and beyond have to make detours through the under-construction stretch of NH 27 or along the stretch of Asian Highway II, work on which has been completed only recently.
On Wednesday morning, some residents in Matigara block of Siliguri subdivision spotted the tilted pillar and noticed that a portion of the concrete plank of the bridge had sunk visibly, by some inches.
Residents immediately informed the police.
Bystanders look at the pillars of the structure.
Soon, the Siliguri Metropolitan Police issued an advisory that only two-wheelers and pedestrians would be allowed on the bridge till further notice.
“We have issued an advisory that other than two-wheelers, all other vehicles will have to go via Naukaghat More (a junction on Asian Highway II in the southern end of Siliguri). Vehicles bound for the hills will have to take other routes. Our men will be posted at the bridge and we will also put men to guide vehicles through other routes,” said Gautam Sharma, commissioner of police.
For many years now, there has been a longstanding demand to built a parallel bridge over Balason river and also to widen the stretch of NH31 between Balason and Salugara (on the northeast-end of Siliguri) through which the highway heads towards Sevoke.
A pavement damaged in a landslide in Kalimpong on Tuesday
The demand had intensified because of the regular congestion at Darjeeling More at the junction of NH 31 and NH 55, and is considered the main entry point to Siliguri
But no work to build a second bridge or widen the stretch has been taken up as yet.
On one hand, state ministers and Trinamul leaders blamed the Centre for not allocating funds for the project. On the other, BJP leaders and MPs accused the state of not arranging land required for the project.
In August this year, Raju Bista, the Darjeeling MP of the BJP, had said that Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari had told him that the project has been taken up in the 2021-22 fiscal.
“He (Gadkari) also said that the ministry will build a 13.4km elevated four-lane corridor (along NH 31) between Balason Sevoke and will spent around Rs 1,150 crore for the project,” Bista had said.
Gautam Deb, a former state minister who is the administrator of the board of administrators in Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), who visited the spot on Wednesday, said the state PWD that looks after the stretch and the bridge, will shortly take necessary steps.
“The chief engineer of the PWD inspected the structure on his way to Calcutta. I have requested the minister of PWD to send technical experts soon for restoration work. It is because of the Centre that the project got delayed,” said Deb.