The Thimphu-Punakha road below Dochula pass, which was blocked for two days by a massive landslide last Sunday, was opened to the traffic at 6:00 P.M. on July 23. “It is still risky as there are rocks and trees constantly falling,� said the Department of Roads’ executive engineer, Sonam Tobgay.
Two stocky bulldozers are stationed on both sides of the road to clear the debris.
The landslide which occurred on Sunday, July 22, at Lamperi about 25KM from Simtokha, stranded about 23 passenger buses plying between Thimphu and Trashigang, and Thimphu and Gelephu, at the Thimphu Lungtenzampa bus terminal. Several vehicles on both sides of the roadblock were also left to stay put.
Some people waited in their stranded vehicles. Others braved the falling boulders and trees to climb over the roadblock, and looked for a ride.
Karma Loday, 27, from Bumthang, was among those stranded at Lamperi. A meat businessman, he was on his way to Bumthang from Phuentsholing, via Thimphu, with chunks of meat at the back of his white Mahindra jeep, when he came upon “few boulders� on the road at Lamperi.
It was 4:30 A.M. Karma got out and along with three other truck drivers went to clear the road when suddenly, he said, the ground shook and a massive part of a hill slid and landed on the road obstructing it completely.
“I was worried about the fate of my meat,� said Karma. “It would smell if I am stranded for long.�
As debris fell intermittently and bulldozers took time to come to the rescue, some people clambered over the roadblock to transit. One such person was a passionate archer, a civil servant, from Wangdue Phodrang, who was on his way Monday to Thimphu to participate in the popular Yangphel tournament. He had a match early Tuesday and was determined to reach Thimphu that Monday evening only.
“The climb is muddy, slippery and very risky,� he said as he clawed and dug his way through the landslide and over a craggy cliff.
A child clutched his father’s collar as the father, a soldier, lassoed a rope around a tree, heaved himself up a steep cliff and swung his way down on the road, ninja style.
A grandmother clung precariously onto a twig as did her granddaughter’s hands around her neck while onlookers below gasped in trepidation. But the steely grandmother dug her hands and feet into the earth and somehow, much to the relief of the onlookers, manoeuvred her way to the other side.
Others weren’t in the daredevil mood.
“I cannot climb as I have my bags and children,� said Kinley Tshering, 30, from Damchi, Thinleygang. She and her two kids were on their way from Thimphu to attend her grandmother’s funeral in her village.
Fortunately for meat businessman Karma and mother Kinley, the road opened on Tuesday evening and they wasted no time in crossing it. Source: Kuenselonline
