Partial road links to Darjeeling restored

Partial road links between Darjeeling and Siliguri was temporarily restored on Wednesday afternoon,a day after heavy rains lashed the area resulting in landslides and mudslides that killed over a dozen people.

The clearing up operations began late as pay loaders were not available. SP (Darjeeling) Rahul Srivastava said one company of BSF’s disaster management team arrived in Darjeeling on Wednesday and took part in clearing the roads.

The death toll in the landslides rose to 24,including six minors. The opening of the road helped hundreds of tourists,who were left stranded for the last 24 hours,to return Siliguri. Locals said that nearly 36 hours of incessant rains had caused havoc in the hills with power supply disrupted.