Rain triggers landslides, 140 link roads blocked

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 31

Normal life was thrown out of gear as heavy to very heavy rain lashed several parts of the state, triggering landslides at many places and more than 140 link roads were closed to traffic in Shimla, Mandi, Kullu and Kangra districts.

Heavy rain uprooted trees at several places. Two women sustained injuries when a tree fell on the working women’s hostel in Sanjauli here last night. The building was also damaged. A car was also crushed under debris as a retaining wall caved in near Engine Ghar in Sanjauli.

Rain turned Shimla into a pool as roads were inundated and vehicular traffic came to a virtual halt. The visibility was reduced to a few metres due to foggy conditions.

Residents of Rohru were a harried lot as the apple season in the lower areas has commenced but the apple laden trucks were standing on roads as 41 links roads were closed.

As per the reports reaching here, the PWD, Irrigation and Public Health (I&PH) and Electricity suffered damages to the tune of Rs 17,791.9 lakh, Rs 6,789.5 lakh and Rs 278.67 lakh as on July 31.

The local MeT office has warned of heavy rain in low and middle hills for the next two days and predicted a wet spell up to August 6. There was no significant change in the minimum and maximum temperatures and Manali was the coldest at night with a low of 10 degrees while Una was hottest in day recording a maximum temperature at 29 degree C.

Dehra Gopipur, which received 159 mm of rain in the past 24 hours, was the wettest in the region followed Palampur 128 mm, Dharamsala 120 mm, Baijnath and Jogindernagar 97 mm each, Shimla 66 mm, Naina Devi 56 mm, Nadaun 52 mm, Nahan 51 mm, Bangana 37 mm, Karsog and Paonta Sahib 36 mm each, Amb 29 mm, Kothi 25 mm, Nagrota Suriyan, Sundernagar, Renuka and Kandaghat 23 mm each, Jubbarhatti 22 mm, Kotkhai 20 mm, Manali and Bharari 19 mm each, Banjar 18 mm, Guler 16 mm, Chhatarari, Sujanpur Tira and Sangrah 15 mm each.