Teesta flood: 150 labourers at Railway construction site miss death by whisker

Kolkata: Around 150 labourers engaged in constructing tunnels for the Indian Railways near the Sikkim-West Bengal border got a new life on that fateful Wednesday morning as they were rescued minutes before the raging Teesta waters washed away their camp and almost all of their belongings.

Officers of a private construction company, for which the labourers work, rushed to their colony with vehicles just in time after learning about the impending calamity and saved the sleeping workers from certain death.

The gushing water of the Teesta destroyed the camp near Zero Mile area, around 2 km from Rambi Bazar in West Bengal's Kalimpong district, with only the roofs of some of their cottages visible now as the rest went under several feet of slush.

As they woke up from deep slumber after a hard day's work by phone calls from the office asking them to pack their bags in a hurry only with essentials and leave the riverside camp, it took them a while for the seriousness of the matter to sink in.

Finally, with the help of a security guard sent to fetch them, they took another route, an unfamiliar one, to save time and reached the nearest motorable road around 20 minutes later.

When they looked back from the safety of the road, the raging river was engulfing the camp, washing away everything. The devastation of nature and the relief of being alive brought tears to their eyes.

"We cried our hearts out as we saw our huts going underwater. It was hard to believe that I was fast asleep at the same spot just 15-20 minutes ago. I am thankful to the almighty for saving us all," Shibyendu Das, a 32-year-old labourer who worked there told PTI over the phone.

Das was among the 150-odd labourers from states such as Assam, Bihar, Punjab and West Bengal, working for the company to build five tunnels for the Indian Railways' Sevoke-Rangpo project which will connect the Himalayan state with the rest of the country.

"We lost our food, tools, gas cylinders, personal belongings -- everything. We only managed to bring with us some money, important papers and some clothes. I was working at this site for nearly two years, but never encountered such a situation," said the labourer from Basirhat area of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

The security guard was not the only one who had come to save them in the early hours of October 3.

"To our surprise, we found out that some officers were waiting for us with two trucks on that road," said Das, who has a little daughter and wife back home.

The officers were putting up at Rambi Bazar area, around 45 km from Sevoke, while the labour hutment was located around 2 km downstream from Rambi Bazar.

"I got a call around 2 am from a local acquaintance in Reyang village (near Rambi Bazar) that police had gone there for evacuation as the Teesta water was rising. We decided to evacuate the labourers as their camp was by the river," said one of the officers who had come to rescue the labourers.

Four officers and the security guard had gone to the labourers' colony with two trucks.

"The trucks had to make seven trips to transport all the 150 labourers to an empty godown near our camp at Rambi Bazar. They were mentally devastated and physically exhausted. We had to counsel them to boost their morale," said the officer, pleading anonymity.

An engineer who was also present during the rescue operation that night said all the 150 labourers were later taken to a safe place near Reyang village, where one of the tunnels of the project is being constructed.

Initially, ration was provided to them from the officers' stock. Arrangements were later made so that they could stay comfortably, said the engineer hailing from Kolkata.

"A few labourers sought to go back to their camp thinking they might salvage some of their articles. But we asked them not to make such a venture as they might put their lives at risk. The spot is full of slush now," said the engineer.

He said the company employees got immense help from the local people and authorities during the crisis.

"Going back to work after witnessing nature's fury has been pretty difficult. I now shudder whenever see water," the labourer, Shibyendu Das, said.

After two days of struggling to cope with the traumatic experience still fresh in their memory, Das and the other workers finally could go back to work on Friday.

The flash flood in the Teesta river, triggered by a cloudburst in Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim, caused accumulation of a huge quantity of water, which turned towards Chungthang dam, destroying the power infrastructure before moving downstream in spate, flooding towns and villages.