Chakki Mod road caves in

Advertisement

Solan, July 8

Tourists were stuck near Kasauli after a sizable portion of on the Kimmughat-Chakki Ka Mod link road caved in last night. A large number of hotels, bed and breakfast units and homestays are located along this kutcha road. It being the peak tourist season as well as the weekend, several rooms in these tourism units were occupied.

“A portion of the road caved in following incessant rainfall last evening, cutting off the area from Kasauli. Several guests staying in the tourism units were forced to take the dingy Kimmughat-Chakki Ka Mod link road to reach the Parwanoo-Dharampur highway,” said Rocky Chimni, Director, Geln View Resorts, which was also cut-off from Kasauli.

He said that the tourists had to travel on the non-metalled road to get out of the area as more rain was predicted in the next 48 hours. He added that hotel bookings had been cancelled for the next few days as the area had been cut-off from the Kasauli side.

Meanwhile, SDM, Kasauli, Gaurav Mahajan has advised tourists to stay put in hotels or other tourism units till the road is repaired. He said that as landslides were occurring on various roads leading to Kasauli, it was advisable not to use the kutcha Kimmughat-Chakki Ka Mod road.

The Public Works Department (PWD) workers were on alert and an earth excavation machine was kept ready to remove debris from various roads. Ranjan Gupta, Executive Engineer, PWD, Kasauli, said, “A loss of Rs 20 lakh has been suffered due to the caving in of a stretch of the Kimmughat-Chakki Ka Mod road where three under-construction buildings collapsed.”

The work was underway to restore the road but continuous rainfall was posing problems. Huge cracks have appeared on the road owing to water seepage from the hills. While the Dharampur-Kasauli road was closed after it caved in yesterday, landslides disrupted traffic movement on the Parwanoo-Jangeshu-Kasauli and Sanawar-Garkhal roads leading to Kasauli throughout the day.