Army repairs river bank breach Mahananda sweeps away embankment

Bimal Gurung and Asok Bhattacharya in Siliguri on Thursday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Army personnel repair the Mahananda embankment breach in Siliguri on Thursday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

TT, Siliguri, July 19: The district administration today called in the army to repair a Mahananda embankment breach that led to flooding in localities a kilometre away, trapping 25,000 residents on Siliguri’s outskirts.

Army personnel from Sukna reached the spot at Milan More and were seen gathering sandbags to guard the neighbouring localities against the river’s fury. Around 25,000 residents are marooned in the localities near the broken embankment.

Within the civic area of Siliguri, nearly half of the 47 wards were under water today.

By late this evening, all 25,000 people had moved to dry areas such as the Champasari Main Road or to flood shelters set up in schools.

“We have sought the Indian Army’s help to repair the portion (of the embankment),” said Siliguri subdivisional officer (SDO) Baibhav Srivastav.

Residents, however, complained that the flood control authorities had been slow to repair the embankment that had developed cracks on the intervening night of July 15 and 16. The North Bengal Flood Control Commission officials visited Milan More only on yesterday morning to plug the gap. Temporary repair work was carried out but the embankment did not hold out in the 171mm rain that Siliguri got between last night and this morning.

On Tuesday, the water had started receding but no repairs were done. “In the past two days it hardly rained. But the state irrigation department was sluggish in repairing the embankment, which is why our homes are under water today,” Gopi Chhetri, a Milan More resident, said.

Bimal Gurung and Asok Bhattacharya in Siliguri on Thursday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

The marooned residents were rescued by a 35-member team of the civil defence department.

The water of the river went as far as Devidanga bazaar, an area at least a kilometre away from the point at Milan More where the embankment gave way. Water entered Babubhasa, Madhya Palash, Karaibari, Tindharia, Kalabari, Machua, Narmadabagan and parts of ward 46 of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation.

The flooding today also resulted in the death of a youth and a two-year-old boy, the first two cases of monsoon casualties in the town.

Siliguri mayor Gangotri Datta said: “The first incident (of death) was reported at Bagha Jatin Colony.” A youth was standing on the Mahananda bank. Arghyadipa Paul, 24, did not realise that a chunk of mud under his feet had fallen into the river. “He too was swept away,” Datta said.

“In ward 46, in the Dhaknikata area, a two-year-old boy was swept away by rain water when he came out of his hut.” The bodies have been found, the mayor said. The small boy was identified as Ankush Oraon.

Today, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung visited some of the inundated areas of the town. Purba Paraibari and Gulmakhari, two of the mouzas that have been included in the GTA area, have been flooded too.

Though Gurung could not go there, he went to the adjoining areas. He was also seen embracing CPM leader and former minister Asok Bhattacharya. Gurung said: “I have come here to see the status of repair and relief work. It is good to see that the administration has come all out to help the people. Whatever information I have gathered from here, I will pass on to Madam (chief minister Mamata Banerjee).”

He added: “Once the water recedes (and GTA is formed), our focus will be to address the problems faced by the residents here because of the breach in the Mahananda (embankment).”

The Balasan flooded several areas such as Patiramjote and Balasan Colony. According to officials, over 500 families had to shift to drier places.

In Tindharia, a 7m stretch of the boundary wall of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway workshop collapsed last night because of heavy rain.

“Along with the boundary wall, the soil beneath the tracks was also washed away,” a DHR official said.

The 97-year-old workshop was at risk since September last year when 150m of NH55 at Tindharia caved in.