Road to remain closed from 7 am to 12pm, from 4pm to 8pm today, tomorrow
NONGPOH: After Sunday’s tragic landslide at Umling resulting in the death of a person, the road traffic on the National Highway 40 that connects the Assam capital with Shillong resumed on Monday.
However, the road will remain closed on Tuesday and Wednesday from 7am to 12pm and from 4pm to 8 pm for further repair. The light vehicles will be diverted through subway, police said.
It was after a hillock of boulders and earth collapsed along the NH 40 at Umling in Ri Bhoi District at 5.30 pm on Sunday that a massive landslide occurred which led to the death of an occupant of a vehicle besides damaging several vehicles.
It took four hours to retrieve the body of Dhon Bahadur (25) from Nagaland who was trapped inside an i20 car. Later, four vehicles including a tanker were recovered.
After 16 long hours of strenuous non-stop efforts, the debris was cleared and vehicular traffic was restored along the NH 40 at around 10.30 am on Monday. During the course of clearing the debris on Monday morning, three more vehicles were recovered.
Talking to The Shillong Times, Umling Rangbah Shnong Augustine Wahlang said that Sunday’s landslide was result of reckless and unscientific cutting and flattening of hillocks along the NH 40 in the name of four-lane project.
The NKC Company, presently executing the four-lane project, blamed the nature’s fury for Sunday’s tragedy.
Meanwhile, the NHAI in a statement said that after the tragedy, the passengers were immediately evacuated from the damaged vehicles by local villagers and the construction company workers.
The landslide was so massive that the debris covered the entire 4-lane road width up to a height of around 10m and upto a length of 100m. This stretch was constructed during 2012 and for last 2 years the same was stable and the slopes were full of vegetation and the traffic was moving normally since last two years on this stretch, the NHAI said.
The rescue operation was immediately started by the Construction Company with the help of 7 Excavators, 10 Dumpers and other heavy earthmoving equipments. The rescue operation started by 6 o’clock and was continued for 14 hours till morning 10 o’clock..
Around 1500 heavy vehicles were stranded on either side of the landslide location for around 14 hours and the same vehicles which were stranded due to the landslide were cleared by the NHAI officials and the construction company by Monday evening, according to NHAI .