Bhattiyat roads damaged due to heavy landslides

Nurpur, August 25

Roads in Bhattiyat of Chamba district, especially the 5-km stretch of the Lahru to Chowari road, were damaged due to heavy landslides on August 19 and 20. The metalled upper layer on the 5-km stretch disappeared at several places.

The PWD had deployed a poclain, five JCB machines and a dozer a day after the landslides to clear the inter-district road. Vijay Verma, Executive Engineer, PWD, Dalhousie division, says that the road was opened for light vehicles late Tuesday evening. The road had suffered extensive damage and faced the threat of land erosion.

“However, the department’s workforce is working on a war footing to restore the road to heavy vehicular traffic. The department will soon construct protection walls on both sides of the road to check further damage to it,” he added.

This inter-district road is the shortest route for the residents of Chamba district to travel to Kangra district and the rest of the state via the Jot-Chowari road. However, they now have to travel long distances via Pathankot-Dunera or Draman-Sihunta roads.

Abhishek Chambial, Sahil Sharma, Sanjay and Hitesh Bedi of Chowari lament that the residents of Chowari and 16 other gram panchayats, faced hardships due to the damaged road. They appealed to the district administration to restore the road at the earliest.

Meanwhile, nine pucca houses built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in Ward number 3 of Chowari nagar panchayat were also damaged due to landslides on the intervening night of August 19 and 20. According to Kusum Dhiman, chairperson of Chowari nagar panchayat, six of the nine damaged houses belonged to Milkhi Ram, Madan Lal, Joginder, Ram Kumar and Bishamber Singh. They were rendered homeless and shifted to the Ambedkar Bhawan in Nurpur town. She appealed to the state government to allot government land and provide financial aid for the reconstruction of houses to the displaced families.