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Kalimpong, Oct. 8: A high-level meeting to finalise the plan to reconstruct the road at the landslide-hit 27 Mile on NH 31A will be held at the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) complex near the Teesta on Friday.

About 40 metres of the highway, which links Sikkim and Kalimpong to Siliguri, was washed away in early August following a landslide triggered by the NHPC’s construction activities on the Teesta riverbed near Rambi as part of the power major’s low dam project.

The meeting, called by the officiating district magistrate, will be attended by urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya and senior officials of the NHPC and Border Roads Organisation, which maintains the road. This was disclosed by NHPC chief engineer S. Khatua at an interactive session between the corporation’s officials and representatives of various local organisations held at Town Hall here yesterday.

The session, organised by Kalimpong Press Club, had the participants reiterating the old fear that the construction of the dam at a topographically fragile area was not a good idea after all.

But NHPC officials assured that the dam has been designed keeping all this in mind and the landslide was an aberration. “The government has not decided to spend crores of rupees in the project only for it to be washed away,” said R. C. Sharma, the senior manager (geology) of the NHPC.

Khatua assured those present that the road will be rebuilt before the next monsoon with funds provided by the NHPC. The chief engineer added that all excavation work at the site would be completed in another two months.

He, however, did not agree that traffic disruptions had resulted in the hike in prices of essential commodities here and chose to ignore a query on whether the NHPC would compensate all those affected by the damage to the road.