Heavy rain to continue till September 22; 655 roads blocked

Heavy rainfall is very likely to continue across Himachal Pradesh. The Meteorological Department has issued a yellow alert for heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning in Solan, Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Sirmaur districts tomorrow. As per the forecast, rainfall will continue to occur in the state till September 22.

Heavy rainfall continued in many parts of the state during the past 24 hours. Shimla received the highest 141 mm of rain, followed by Nagrota Surian (135.2 mm) in Kangra, Sundernagar (60.5 mm), Mandi (52.6 mm), Kangra (50.5 mm), Bilaspur (30.8 mm), Dharamsala (12.9 mm), Paonta Sahib (10.4 mm), Kasauli (10.2 mm) and Solan (2 mm).

As many as 655 roads, including three national highways (NHs), are still blocked while about 924 power transformers are disrupted in the state as heavy rainfall continues to wreak havoc.

As per the State Emergency Operation Centre, around 313 roads are closed in Mandi, 155 (including the NH-03 and the NH-305 in Kullu), 47 in Shimla, 46 in Kangra, 21 in Chamba, 19 (including the NH-503A) in Una, 14 each in Solan and Sirmaur, 13 in Bilaspur, 11 in Hamirpur and two in Kinnaur district.

Also, of the total 924 power transformers disrupted, Mandi has the highest number of 783 transformers, followed by Hamirpur (78), Kullu (35), Chamba (24), Shimla (3) and Kangra (1), affecting electricity supply in many areas of these districts. Besides, 243 water supply schemes (60 in Hamirpur, 53 in Mandi, 41 in Shimla, 37 in Bilaspur, 31 in Chamba, 17 in Kangra, three in Solan and one in Nahan) are also disrupted, leaving many areas of these districts without proper drinking water supply.