Chd-Manali highway among 197 roads blocked in Mandi dist
Dipender Manta
Mandi, August 12
Heavy rain for the past two days triggered landslides at various places in Mandi district. as a result, roads were blocked and power supply to rural areas was snapped. As many as 197 roads were blocked in Mandi district, including the Chandigarh-Manali highway today due to landslides.
The Chandigarh-Manali highway was blocked between Mandi and Pandoh due to landslides at 6 miles and 9 miles since last evening. Till the filing of this report, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was yet to restore the road. A large number of vehicles were stuck in Kullu, Manali and Mandi. Alternative routes between Mandi and Kullu via Kataula and Chailchowk-Pandoh were also blocked this morning due to landslides. But during daytime, the Public Works Department (PWD) reopened both these routes.
Of the 197 roads blocked, 60 were in Dharampur, 43 in Sarkaghat, 16 in Padhar, 15 in Balh, 13 in Seraj, 12 each in Mandi, Sundernagar Thalout, eight in Jogindernagar and four in Gohar division. The PWD was struggling to restore the blocked roads in Mandi.
Besides roads, 573 electricity transformers were disrupted in the district — 116 in Mandi, 170 in Sundernagar, 67 in Jogindernagar, 49 in Dharampur, 167 in Sarkaghat, three in Karsog and one in Gohar. As a result, several parts of the district, especially rural areas, were reeling under darkness today. A Kutcha house and a cowshed were also damaged.
Meanwhile, due to an increase in the water level of a local rivulet in Dharampur, the local administration shifted buses from the bus stand to a safe place. In the Balh valley, agricultural land was inundated following heavy rain, damaging crops and causing heavy losses to farmers. At Nerchowk and Behna in the Balh valley, rainwater entered houses and shops, damaging property. Rainwater also entered the basement of Nerchowk medical college but no damage to medical equipment was reported.
One car was damaged after it was hit by a big boulder on the Manikaran road in Kullu district last evening. There was no one in the parked car at the time of the incident.
