No links to Chungthang anymore,three bring back stories of horror

What they revealed were stories of horror and devastation.

Tung marks the end of the road in North Sikkim. Nobody talks,even as everyone is afraid,of what lies beyond kilometres away from the epicentre of Sundays quake where geography has been overwritten,roads have disappeared,mountains have come down,buildings and houses washed away,and where the worst fears now surround the fate of the Teesta-Ujra hydel project under construction.

The 1,200-MW plant was being built at Chungthang,just 8 km away,and the Sikkim government this evening confirmed that so far 17 bodies have been recovered from there. Five of the dead were from West Bengal. As many as 19 villages in North Sikkim,with an estimated population of about 10,000,still lie marooned,without help.

The Indian Express team,one of the first media teams to reach Tung,met three youths who work with Southern Engineering Works,one of the firms engaged in construction of the NHPC hydel project. What they revealed were stories of horror and devastation. A portion of the hydel project tunnel,it is feared,has caved in,trapping a large number of workers. An aerial survey yesterday had revealed a bus hanging from a cliff. It is believed to have been carrying 22 people.

It was at 7 am today that Buddhi Prasad Ghimrey (22),a supervisor with Southern Engineering; Sourav Limbu (21),a junior engineer; and Saran Subbah,who has been working with the company for three years,started walking to Tung from Chungthang,taking eight hours to cover 8 km across the valley of death.

It looks like a heavily bombarded area with bodies underneath mountains of boulders, said Ghimrey.

When we started this morning,a large number of others tried to follow us,but gave up after sensing the dangers in the path, Limbu said.

Recalling the moment of the quake,he added: Initially,we thought it was boulders falling,which happens regularly because of blasting at the project site. But when everything started swaying precariously,we ran out of our house (the three share a room at the project site),escaping just before it collapsed and rolled into the Teesta.

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They spent Sunday night in an Army tent and on Monday morning,went looking for colleagues. They helped the Army dig out eight bodies an AGM-rank officer of Navayuga Engineering Company (NEC),an official of a firm providing the NEC supplies,three officials hailing from Nepal,West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh,and three who remain unidentified.

Many of the workers who had gone to immerse Lord Viswakarma idols into the Teesta on Sunday evening did not return. Similar was the situation with NEC,which had about 1,000 employees at the site like Southern Engineering Works, said Ghimrey.

Subbah said they saw bodies at other sites too,such as under the Moonlight School. Sunday being a holiday,it was closed,but there were about 15 people staying on the second floor.

As it tries to press through to Chungthang,the Army is dreading what it will find. Its base at Chungthang suffered damage,with jawans still missing, said Ghimrey.

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Expressing his gratitude to the force,he added: It was Gods grace that the Army base was there. Whoever is surviving at the valley now is because of the relief,ration and shelter they provided.

Colonel Sharma of the 52 Battalion,Army Engineering Corps,expects a long haul. It would be days before the road link to Chungthang can be restored, he said. It is almost like building the road anew. Very little of the old road is left.

In the evening,Ghimrey,Limbu and Subbhah left with the Express team from Tung,on their way back home to Darjeeling. One of the first things they did was charge their mobiles and talk to their families for the first time in three days. We are safe and coming home, they said.