The early years of SNT…….

SNT, as Sikkim Nationalised Transport, is popularly known as the backbone of Sikkim's rich, old heritage and transportation history. When I came across the article “A review of Nationalised Road Transport in Sikkim (1944-1969)” written by L.H Hartnett, the then General Manager of Sikkim Nationalised Transport, published in the Silver Jubilee magazine of SNT in 1969, I found some excellent preview of the early days of the Sikkim state transport system that was to change the scenario of Sikkim transportation within the next fifty years. It would take a while to complete the review of the Sikkim Nationalised Transport over the last six decades, but I would be more precise in bringing to mind the early days that completed the establishment of today’s SNT.

People boarding the Sikkim Transport Service Bus at Deorali (the late 50s)

The year was 1944; when the rest of the world was engaged in the disastrous Second World War, a department called the Truck Department run by the Government of Sikkim was at the forefront of transportation in the hills of Sikkim. Sikkim then had winter snowfall in the Northern Ranges, rainfall exceeding 100 inches a year during monsoons, frequent landslides, subsidence of weak bridges, and the absence of an airport. For a hilly region like that of Sikkim, where major development in the field of transportation was merely a dream, the Truck Department was a boon to the people living in this part of the world.

The first year of the setting up of the Nationalisation of Road Transport saw ten Ford (military type) trucks with a payload capacity of 15-cwt each brought in an investment of Rs 140,000, avail from the loan provided by the Rationing Department of the Sikkim Government. The same year, another ten 15-cwt Chevrolet trucks were also acquired. The total tonnage lifted by those trucks amounted to 600 tons, earning the Department gross revenue of Rs 49,900. With limited routes around, the trucking operation was prepared through Gangtok-Tista-Kalimpong and Gangtok-Tista-Geilkhola until 1950 when the floods of 1950 destroyed the railhead at Geilkhola never to be restored.

The first TMB Freighters

The following decade of the 50s brought Sikkim to close links with the neighbouring country India. An arrangement was made in 1951-52 with the North East Frontier Railway in India and the Indian Postal and Telegraph Department, resulting in the opening of the Railway Out Agencies at Rangpo and Gangtok along with the starting of the carriage of postal mail between Gangtok and Kalimpong. Freight services were extended to Siliguri, and the Truck Department’s Pradhan Nagar Depot opened the same year. A major announcement came in 1951-52 with the naming of the Truck Department with that of “Sikkim State Transport Service”. The Sikkim State Transport Service earned Rs 18,71,124 in its first eight years.

The first consumer pump for petrol in Rangpo, passenger services extended to Siliguri, nationalization of the Namgyal Highway in South Sikkim was undertaken by the State Transport Department between 1952 and 1954, and the gross earning of the Department had already crossed Rs 32 82,786. The following year saw a new usher in the development of road transport in the state, with the introduction of the First Plan in Sikkim for seven years. Before 1954, the planning of transport in the state was referred to as a pre-plan. The First Plan (1954-1961) had a capital outlay of Rs 8, 50,000 provided as aid by the Government from Departmental funds received from the Government of India.

The year also witnessed the first Tata Mercedes Benz Truck, Model L 312/36, being used on the road from Gangtok to Rangpo. Gangtok-Darjeeling daily passenger service on land rovers was also introduced. An agreement was negotiated for the countersignature of route permits by the West Bengal authorities and Sikkim State Transport vehicle. This move made the vehicle from Sikkim operate on the route of North Bengal, which played an important role in the state's economic development. The State Transport Service’s Offices set up at Rangpo the same year saw a net profit of over Rs 2, 98,348. The plan's second year (1955-1956) renamed the Transport Service to the present name “Sikkim Nationalised Transport.” Sikkim Nationalised Transport was also made a permanent Department of the Government of Sikkim under the same Plan.