A day after a powerful earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale jolted Sikkim and several areas of northeast and neighbouring Nepal, West Bengal and northeastern states were limping back to normalcy, but heavy rains and landslides in some rugged areas affected rescue operations.
According to Press Trust of India, the overall toll mounted to 72. Sikkim accounted for 41 deaths alone, nine people died in West Bengal and eight in Bihar, seven each Nepal and Tibet, official reports said.
The epicentre of yesterday’s quake — the biggest in two decades — was located at Mangan and Sakyong areas, over 50 km from Gangtok on the Sikkim-Nepal border.
In West Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee is visiting Kurseong in Darjeeling district to take stock of the situation, while commerce and industry minister Partha Chatterjee is already off to North Bengal.
The state is sending a health and disaster management team to Sikkim, but its plans were stuck for the day owing to bad weather, according to the chief minister. Reports said efforts were on to restore the damage caused to National Highway-31A and NH 55.
While the central government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of those killed and Rs 1 lakh each for those seriously injured, the state would provide a Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of victims.
The Sikkim government too announced compensation. Chief Minister Pawan Chamling said a compensation of Rs 5 lakh will be given to the kin of the deceased, Rs 50,000 for those grievously injured and Rs 25,000 for those with minor injuries. Many buildings in and around Gangtok have collapsed with most of the structures developing cracks due to the quake.
On the other hand, power supply and railway services came to a standstill, after the tremor and its aftershocks. Power producers and suppliers like NTPC, WBPDCL and WBSEDCL were affected, though no major damage was reported, while North Eastern Frontier Railway (NEFR) is taking precautionary measures for the safety of passengers.
The quake affected the NTPC as two plants each with a capacity of 500-Mw -- at Farakka in West Bengal and Kahalgaon in Bihar -- were tripped. “It was because of the installed electrical production systems that interlock systems after such events,” an NTPC spokesperson said. “When production started at Farakka with in 45 minutes, Kahalgaon was back in action by 8.45 pm yesterday.”
A major fire broke out last night at WBSEDCL’s Birpara substation in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, leading to disruption of power for hours. An official source confirmed that power service was reestablished in the entire North Bengal by night, while in Sikkim it was done by the morning.
WBPDCL, the state power producer said that all its five plants in the region are intact and are continuing production as usual. WBPDCL has plants at Sagardighi, Kolaghat, Bandel, Santaldihi and Bakreswar. The NEFR has shifted to defensive mode to avoid any breakage of services. “No damage has been reported,” said its spokesman S Hajong. “Normal training has been resumed, only that there’s a speed restriction of 30 kmph (kilometre per hour) on bridges in North Bengal. A thorough checking of these bridges will take time.”
The Army has launched Operation Madad in Gangtok and the neighbouring regions by deploying about 2,000 security personnnel for rescue operations.
