Snowfall: 3,000 stranded near Atal Tunnel rescued

Dipender Manta

Mandi, May 9

The Kullu police last night evacuated over 3,000 tourists stranded near the south portal of the Atal Tunnel on the Manali-Leh highway because of fresh snowfall. They were travelling in around 500 vehicles towards Manali from the Lahaul side.

The rescue team led by DSP, Manali, KD Sharma evacuated all stranded tourists safely towards Manali. Sharma said that due to fresh snowfall near the Atal Tunnel on Monday evening, the highway became slippery for the movement of vehicles. As a result, over 500 vehicles were stuck at the south portal of the tunnel at night.

He said, “It took us almost six hours to evacuate all tourists from the area to Manali. The rescue operation ended at 11.30 pm on Monday.”

The DSP said that it was snowing heavily in the region last evening when the rescue operation was launched, he added.

He said that today morning, the Manali-Leh highway was opened to all kinds of vehicular traffic up to Darcha from Manali but during day time, the weather in the Solang valley turned inclement. Hence, the police restricted the movement of vehicles towards Lahaul beyond the Solang nullah from the Manali side.

In Lahaul and Spiti, the Tandi-Killar road was blocked beyond Tindi. Tourists and local residents were advised to avoid travelling on this route. The Darcha-Padum road is also blocked.

Meanwhile, the police rescued five Delhi tourists from remote Komic village of the Spiti region on Monday evening. Komic is known as one of the world’s highest motorable villages.

Lahaul and Spiti SP Mayank Chaudhary said that a police party reached Komic village and found that five tourists, named Harsh Kumar, Bhawna, Kashish Jain, Subham Jain and Rahul Yadav, all residents of New Delhi, were stranded in a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle (CH01 CN6173) dur to snow. “The stranded tourists were rescued with the help of the Taxi Union of Kaza. Accommodation was arranged for them,” he added.