Anxiety Rises Among Gangtok Residents Due To Landslips

Crack in Support Wall

A linesman undertakes the challenging task of shifting an electricity post to a safer location and resuming power supply to the affected area above the Government College campus in Gangtok.

Houses Bandaided with Plastics

GANGTOK, 04 July: Although restoration works have begun on the failed slope in the college campus here, residents of the houses above remain an anxious lot, unsure that these measures so late in the day will keep their buildings safe. The clutch of around 150 houses in the area have been trying to convince authorities that the two massive hostels being constructed at the toe of the slope were unwise undertakings in the absence of adequate protective measures. The Department however began the construction work without constructing a retaining wall to secure the slope above and the college slammed a boundary wall above, which the residents contend, disrupted the drainage. Now, the slope has slid away, the wall has collapsed and the houses above imperiled.

The slip happened on the intervening night of 29 and 30 June and has been in accelerated collapse since then. Restoration works on the damaged stretch have however begun in earnest now, but their efficacy is yet to be proven and will be tested when the rains come down with some intensity next.
As for the mitigation efforts afoot, the electricity post which had tilted when the boundary wall collapsed last night, has been shifted further down to a safer spot and power supply restored to the area.
Sandbag-benching along the failed slope, from the hostel construction site to the houses above has also begun. Meanwhile, the PHE Department has started diverting the sewage lines away from the slope which is now in slide.
The department has channeled two new lines [temporary] to carry away the sewage from this area.
The already dislodged water supply lines to the Central Referral Hospital which was laid across what is now the slide zone has also been dismantled and an alternate route is being laid.
The situation for the buildings above the slide continues to throw up new challenges every day. A retaining wall along the foundation of one such building sported a vertical crack straight down the middle this morning, creating more worries about the stability of the houses here.
Although fresh plaster and plastic sheets are being lavishly spread out, these are obviously band-aid remedies for the fracture that the alignment has become.
Faced with the situation they find themselves in now, the 150 households in the area are now complaining of stubborn official dismissal of their complaints raised in the past. They highlight that when the boundary wall was constructed, they had complained of it blocking drainage in the area and peep-holes were included in the wall for surface run-off. These were however more than 5 inches above the ground level and would have carried away surface run off only when the area flooded.
More worrisome is their official protest against the hostel construction work starting without the slope being fortified. They had done this before construction began and had even met the district authorities formally with the complaint only to be ignored. Now, their fears have come true.
The residents, it is informed, had even lodged an FIR recording the danger posed by the construction below. Nothing came of it either.
It is informed that the slide zone was visited by the HRD Minister, NK Pradhan, UD&HD Minister, DB Thapa, who also happens to be the area MLA, Gangtok Mayor, KN Topgay, DC, D Anandan, SDM, Dr. AB Karki and Chief Engineer, HRDD, MB Gurung this morning. The residents pointed out that the Ministers inspected the slide from the college area and did not visit the affected people above. The district and departmental officials have, however, been visiting the spot since yesterday itself and reassuring the residents of adequate safety measures being taken.
(NowDaily)

GANGTOK BATTLE TO SAVE HOUSES FROM LANDSLIDES

GANGTOK, July2 : A portion of the boundary wall of Government College, Tadong gave way thursday night, exposing compromised slope which is now posing danger to houses above it. The footpath between the wall and the buildings [outside the college campus] has also developed gaping cracks, the earth beneath it slipping away, a slope failure perhaps caused by the huge construction underway in the college compound.

STOP-PRESS: What had started as anxious concern reached panic desperation late friday evening when the mud caved away from below the boundary wall, setting in motion what everyone is convinced, is an accelerated slope failure which has multiplied the sinking area’s potential for destruction.

The SDM [East], AB Karki, AE, HRDD, Mahesh Chettri, AE, Sewerage, PHE, Tenzing Lamtha, surveyed the spot this afternoon. The danger posed to houses here is obvious and the site was also visited earlier in the day by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor along with officials from the Power & Energy Department, UD&HD and PHE.
The houses that suffer the greatest danger are of Geeta Niroula, Bharat Basista and Pemba along with the houses of RP Thatal, Chabilal Lakhey, and BT Tikhatri.
As an immediate preventive measure, the SDM directed that a temporary drainage be made to carry surface run-off away from the construction site below. Since a retaining wall, from the construction site to the boundary wall, will not be feasible for the present weather conditions, the SDM has directed that the slope be reinforced with “sandbag benching” of adequate strength to last the monsoons. The sewage line here is also be diverted to skirt the affected sections.
The SDM further informed that the district authorities will also be conferring with the line departments on the situation.
The water supply pipes to the Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences further down the slope also run through this area and supply was cut off for a few hours today. The slip has also left the electricity poles in the area vulnerable and power supply was cut off for most part of the day. Although power supply was resumed later in the evening, it was off again at night, perhaps as a precautionary measure.
Interestingly, the residents of the area blame the boundary wall for their imperiled situation. This boundary wall was erected to keep out people from surrounding areas to use the college road, but ended up ruining the existing drainage in the area.
This might be only partially correct because the obvious culprit in this case is the massive construction which has begun below without any protective walls to reinforce the already unstable slope above.
Directly below the sinking area which has residents worried is a huge construction of the college hostels – two buildings of 40 posts each. No attempt has been made to construct the retaining wall recommended for the slope above before the construction commenced.
This construction began three months back. It is learnt that the Department was apprehensive about this project since the slope is made up of loose soil, probably dumped earth from the time when the campus was made. Engineers had recommended that a protective wall be erected before construction was started at the toe of this slope. This advice was overlooked because it would have delayed actual construction from starting and if it did not start as it did three months back, the project would have had to wait out the monsoons.
Officials also informed that the site was inspected by officials from the Geological Survey of India and found stable enough for construction. They add that the protective wall option was deferred for later because the area had no history of sinking. Well, a fortnight into the monsoons, and history is being made here.
There is a provision of a permanent protective wall included in the construction of hostel, informed an HRDD official. It is obviously rather late in the day to begin work on it now.
As a result, it is not only the slope above which had been destabilized, but even the staff quarters directly below the construction site are now springing leaks because of the amateurish drainage above it. There is work underway to carve out a better drainage, but until that happens, the situation will remain dicey for the entire stretch.
The residents also complain that a few weeks ago they had complained to DC office about the threat posed to their houses due to the manner in which the construction below was being undertaken. No follow-up action was taken at that time, and now the people stare at a collapsed boundary wall, sinking footpaths and have only yards of plastic sheets to save the slope.

(Now Daily)