6 Soldiers Among 19 Dead In Sikkim Disaster, 103 Missing: 10 Points
Guwahati: Six soldiers are among 19 dead in the Sikkim flash floods, sources said today. Over 100 including 16 soldiers are missing and 3,000 tourists are stranded. Over 2,500 people have been evacuated so far, and 6,000 have been moved to relief camps.
Here’s your 10-point cheatsheet to this big story
- The state government has asked tourists not to come to Sikkim at the moment. The government also issued an advisory over the possibility of explosives and ammunition washed away from an army camp in the flash floods.
- The Power Ministry said it will make a detailed assessment of damage to hydropower projects in Sikkim after the flood water recedes.
- The state-owned hydropower giant NHPC is taking all possible measures to get the hydropower projects operational at the earliest, the ministry said, adding they are continuously monitoring the situation arising out of flash floods in the Teesta basin.
- Due to flash floods in the Teesta basin on the intervening night of October 3 and 4, all the bridges downstream to Teesta-V hydropower station up to Tarkhola and Pamphok have been submerged or washed away.
- Presently, the power station is under shutdown and not generating electricity. NHPC has timely evacuated manpower from all its projects and ensured that they are shifted to safer places.