SHILLONG:
Around 50 people were left stranded on the road on April 14 night after a landslide struck a stretch of the Shillong-Dawki Road at Rngain near Pynursla, crushing and pushing one vehicle into a gorge.
Among the stranded passengers, many travelled to their villages on foot last night while others stayed back, waiting for the debris to be cleared, which, according to officials will take some time.
According to one tourist taxi driver, many vehicles had to turn back last night while a few stayed back. The people who stayed on the road last night left to their respective villages on foot this morning.
“However, I, along with a few others, had to stay back because our vehicles are loaded and we have to deliver the goods to the respective villages. We can’t go back to Sohra, nor can we leave our cars here,” he said. “We will have to wait and see how the situation unfolds,” he added.
Calling this stretch a landslide-prone area, the driver said when monsoon hits, drivers have to be very careful while driving on this road. “We had to look up every now and then. This is a dangerous road,” he added.
A car was crushed under a pile of boulders triggered by a landslide on April 14. Though the vehicle has been located, the two occupants, one of whom has been identified as the rangbah shnong of Wahlyngkhat village, are yet to be pulled out. They are both feared dead. Another vehicle – a tourist taxi that was also hit by a pile of boulders made a narrow escape and occupants sustained minor injuries and were taken to the nearby health centre.
Till the filing of this report, the search and rescue team are still on the job to remove the boulders and retrieve the bodies.