Chail, Barog turn white; flakes in Kasauli, Solan

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, January 22

Snow greeted Chail residents on Tuesday with more than a feet snow covering the town and its surrounding areas.

Areas like Barog, Dagshai and Karol ka Tibba also experienced mild snow in the district, though in Kasauli and Solan, the snow failed to settle down after a few showers.

Traffic was disrupted on the Kumarhatti-Solan state highway as the road became slippery owing to snow and it was closed for traffic by the police during the day.

Vehicles moved at a snail’s pace on the Kalka-Shimla national highway throughout the day.

Though the white mantle brought cheer to hoteliers, but it plunged Chail town into darkness as the power supply was disrupted throughout the day.

The town was virtually cut off from the rest of the area as road remained blocked near Mahog where snow disrupted movement of traffic over a stretch of over 3 to 4 km.

Devinder Verma, a hotelier, lamented that the PWD staff failed to press JCBs into service to open the road at Mahog despite receiving directions from the SDM.

He said the shoddy power infrastructure in the area had become a permanent cause of concern as it got disrupted during inclement weather. Higher reaches of Sirmaur district such as Nohradhar, Haripurdhar, Churdhar, Shillai,etc, also experienced heavy snowfall since Monday evening.

Various villages in the trans-Giri areas such as Haripurdhar, Nohradhar tehsil and Sangrah tehsil remained plunged in darkness since Monday night owing to heavy snowfall. Several rural roads like Sangrah-Nohradhar, Menas-Solan, Dhoni Bridge-Sangrah and Haripurdhar-Nohradhar also remained closed in the district.