12 foreigners rescued, toll goes up to 117

Mangan (Sikkim), Sept 22 (PTI) Twelve stranded foreigners
were rescued from the North district as relief teams battled
hard to reach remote quake-hit areas with landslides blocking
roads as the toll in Sunday's powerful temblor rose to 117,
including 74 in the Himalayan state.
With one more body recovered from the North district, the
toll in northeastern state Sikkim has gone up to 74 while
eastern state West Bengal has reported 15 deaths, nine in
eastern state Bihar, 11 in Nepal, seven in Tibet and one in
Bhutan.
Officials said 21 people including 12 foreigners stranded
in the district were airlifted to Gangtok.
Four key roads -- Chungthang-Lachen, Chungthan
-Lachung, Pedong-Kupup and Rangpo-Rorathang -- are still
blocked due to landslide and Border Roads Organisation (BRO)
and Army Engineers are working on their restoration.
Four pregnant women were shifted by ITBP to Mangan
Chungthang hospitals. Rescue teams also evacuated 18 more
Indian tourists from Rangma Range and nine civilian workers of
Teesta project from Pegong.
Power supply in Sikkim has been normal except in the some
parts of North district.
Most of the employees and labourers of the Teesta Hydro
Electro Project have been counted for and fears of recovery
of more bodies in and around the construction site have been
dispelled by the rescuers, a senior Home ministry official
said.
Army personnel involved in the rescue operation at
Saffu could not reach the Teesta project site by road owing to
landslides and reached the area through the project tunnels.
Most of the people, including tourists, have been
evacuated from Lachen, but there were fresh landslides in
the area which, coupled with intermittent rains, made the
going difficult for the Army, officials said.
Ten teams of NDRF comprising 403 personnel along with
necessary equipment have been deployed for search and rescue
operations.
Three teams of NDRF which were located at Gangtok have
moved to Mangan and two teams located at Mangan have been
deployed for search and rescue operations in villages Ramam,
Lingzya and Dzongu.
Two teams of NDRF comprising 14 personnel and 16
personnel each have been deployed at Chungthan and Lachung
respectively.
The doctors of the NDRF team deployed at Mangan with
medical detachment have set up a medial relief camp at Manul
Mangan.
Altogether 827 ITBP personnel are engaged in rescue
operations and have also set up relief camps where villagers
have been given shelter.
The state government has opened relief camps in each
district. 2700 and 550 people have been provided shelter in
army camps and ITBP camp (Pengong) respectively.
A total of 5,500 army personnel located in Sikkim have
been pressed into relief and rescue operations. Out of this,
94 army columns (strength of columns varies from 15-40
personnel each) have been deployed for rescue operation.
Rescue columns comprising 281 personnel deployed at Mangan
have set up Integrated Command Centre.
94 villages have been physically covered by the team of
army jawans in their search and rescue operations.
The 12 foreigners, including two Norwegian tourists, were
airlifted from quake-hit Chungthang to Safo in North Sikkim
and later to the state capital on Thursday.
"Safo is a relatively safer place in the higher reaches
where many of the rescued persons have been sheltered," they
said.
Ten technicians and engineers, mainly from South Africa
and Brazil were working at the Teesta project.
"We have yet no idea of the condition in villages like
Sakyong-Pentong, Bey which were in forested areas beyond
Dzongu," an official said.
The villages in Sikkim are scattered and there is only
one major highway connecting Mangan to Dzongu.
Lingza and Bey villages at Upper Dzongu in the North
District were reconnected to the outside world for a brief
period yesterday after remaining cut off for five days, but
fresh landslides blocked the road linking the villages to
Mangan.
However, landslides were cleared upto Lingza Falls
enabling Army and police personnel to resume their mission to
reach food supplies to the marooned people.
From the Lingza Falls they headed onwards the villages
on foot.
Local people said some villages like 12 Mile had been
completely wiped out.
Teesta company today said its under-construction,1,200-MW
hydroelectric project in North District was not amuch affected
by the 6.8 magnitude quake.
"No section of the tunnels of project works, at Saffu or
at any other location on the site, is flooded or has
collapsed," the company said in a statement.