Himachal landslide: Mandi-Kullu stretch of Chandigarh-Manali National Highway opened after one day

Shimla, July 13 (PTI) Hundreds of people stuck in traffic jams following a landslide on the Mandi-Kullu stretch of the Chandigarh-Manali National Highway near 4 Mile in Himachal Pradesh heaved a sigh of relief as one-way traffic was restored after over 24 hours on Sunday evening.

The road was closed following a massive landslide on Saturday afternoon following rains and while the light vehicles were diverted via the Chailchowk-Gohar-Pandoh and Kamand-Kataula and Bajaura routes, heavy vehicles were halted at Nagchala and Jhiri, officials said on Sunday.

Still, a huge queue of traffic was stranded on both sides of the road and the commuters, who remained stuck for almost a day, faced huge inconvenience.

Intermittent rains created hurdles in restoration work as the debris kept falling from the hills and the road was restored for one-way traffic.

Police and administration were engaged in traffic control on the spot. The administration has appealed to passengers to travel only in case of necessity and use alternative routes in view of the situation, officials said.

A total of 196 roads, including 153 in disaster-hit Mandi district are closed for vehicular traffic in the state due to rains, while 787 water supply schemes were affected on Sunday evening, as per the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC).

Since the onset of monsoon on June 20 till date, the state has suffered losses of Rs 770 crore and 98 people have died -- 57 in rain-related incidents and 41 in road accidents -- 178 have been injured, while 34 are missing. The state has witnessed 31 flash floods, 22 cloudbursts, and 18 landslides, it added.

Big boulders came down on the Hindustan-Tibet Highway near Kumarhatti flyover in the Solan district. However, no one was hurt as the local people had already stopped the traffic before the huge rocks fell on the road. The traffic was moving on this road.

A video of Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur narrowly escaping while crossing a stretch of road on foot where debris and stones were falling in the Lambathach area of monsoon disaster-hit Seraj Assembly constituency, represented by him, went viral on the internet. Thakur's convoy was going to Thunag from Janjheli.

The local weather office has issued an 'orange alert' of heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places in Kangra and Sirmaur districts on Monday and 'yellow warning' of heavy rains in isolated areas in three to ten out of 12 districts in the state till Thursday (July 17).

Light to moderate rains lashed few parts of the state and Shimla received 25.3 mm of rain in the past 24 hours since Saturday evening followed by Kufri 24 mm, Narkanda 10 mm, Solan 9.8 mm, Poanta Sahib 9.4 mm, Hamirpur 8 mm and Jubbarhatti 7 mm.

Meanwhile, search operations are still underway to trace the 27 who were washed away after 10 cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides wreaked havoc in various parts of Mandi on the intervening night of June 30-July 1 and resulted in the deaths of 15 people.

Keylong was the coldest at night, with a low of 11 degrees Celsius, while Bilapsur was the hottest during the day, recording a high of 34.7 degrees Celsius. PTI BPL MNK MNK