Frost makes travel risky on Manali-Leh highway

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, December 10

Sub-zero temperature has made driving risky on the Manali-Leh highway (between Kullu and Lahaul via the Rohtang Pass). Vehicles often skid off the road due to frost.

Not caring much about the risk, residents of Lahaul-Spiti have been taking the Kullu-Lahaul road for the past many days. Earlier, the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) used to ply buses between Kullu and Keylong on the Manali-Leh highway, but now it has suspended the service.

Mangal Chand Manepa, regional manager, HRTC depot at Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti, said driving was a nightmare here. The bus service had to be suspended for the safety of passengers. But small vehicles continue to ply on the road between Manali and Keylong, putting the lives of people at risk.

Every year, the Rohtang Pass, the gateway to Lahaul, is closed for vehicular movement on November 15, but this year, the residents of Lahaul-Spiti forced the district administration and the state government to keep it open until the pass received heavy snowfall.

The residents said they had no option, but to travel on the risky road between Kullu and Lahaul for urgent works as most of of their family members lived in Kullu district.

They said after the closure of Rohtang Pass, they would be at the mercy of the state government to move in and out of district, which provided the helicopter service only in emergency cases. Lahaul-Spiti Deputy Commissioner Ashwani Kumar Chaudhari said the people were advised to refrain from taking the road.

“There is a prediction of snowfall. In view of public safety, the incharge of rescue posts at Koksar and Marhi has been asked to stop the movement of vehicles as well as pedestrians as the inclement weather may prove fatal,” he added.