Excavated slope at Chakki Mor leads to frequent traffic jams

The delay in the repair of an excavated bare slope at Chakki Mor on the Parwanoo-Solan National Highway (NH)-5 has become hazardous for commuters as frequent landslides are causing traffic disruptions every other day.

The slope protection work was underway in two stretches — 39-km Parwanoo–Solan and 22-km Chambaghat–Kairighat – on the highway. The Parwanoo-Solan highway, being the gateway to the state, witnesses a heavy flow of traffic throughout the week that peaks at weekends. Any disruption in movement creates traffic snarls, forcing vehicles to queue up within no time, inconveniencing the commuters and also making the task cumbersome for policemen.

A stretch of at least 200 m to 250 m was especially vulnerable as huge chunk of boulders and muck flowed down from the slopes whenever it rains, rendering at least two of the four-lanes unfit for plying vehicles. “Loose strata was eroding in the rains along with sludge. This will facilitate slope protection work as the loose strata is required to be scaled down before undertaking any protection work,” says Anand Dahiya, Project Director, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which had executed the highway widening project through private contractors.

This stretch has faced recurrent monsoon-triggered landslides since the hills were excavated for widening the highway. The situation turned particularly grim in July 2023, when heavy rainfall and cloudbursts wreaked havoc on the region.

“While protection work on the Chakki Mor-Kimmughat road lying above the vulnerable stretch was in an advanced stage, slope protection measures on the about 200 m slope and about 70 m valley will gather pace after the rain subsides,” says Dahiya.

The drawing of engineering technologies for plugging the vulnerable slopes have already been approved by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd and once the rain subsides protection work of the slopes will begin.

To avert more damage, real-time monitoring of the fragile hill strata at vulnerable points like Chakki Mor and Datiyar will be undertaken to secure information about landslides. As many as 176 defects were identified over an area of 6,485m on the 20-km stretch of the Parwanoo-Dharampur section of the highway, which was affected by landslides during the torrential rain.