Kullu-Manali road bears brunt of monsoon fury

Dipender Manta

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Mandi, July 27

The rain disaster on July 9 and 10 caused massive damage to highways and other roads in Kullu district. The Kiratpur-Manali highway was severely damaged but the stretch between Kullu and Manali bore the brunt of the monsoon fury.

Three bridges damaged, road connectivity snapped

• Three bridges have been damaged in Kullu district, snapping road connectivity.
• Flashfloods in the Beas damaged a steel truss bridge on the Aut-Banjar-Luhri road at Aut.
• An aerial ropeway footbridge near Babeli on the way to Manali. This bridge was a major attraction for tourists, who click selfies on it.
• Another aerial ropeway footbridge was damaged at Manali, leaving the area residents without road connectivity.

This highway has not been restored to traffic even 17 days after flashfloods. The work is going on a war footing to repair the damaged stretches on the highway. At many places, the highway has been damaged so much that it looks like a village link road, which earlier was a two-lane road providing comfortable journey to commuters.

A visit to the flood-ravaged Kullu district revealed that the Kullu-Manali road has been severely damage at several places. The Kiratpur-Manali road suffered the maximum damage at Raison, 11 km from Kullu towards Manali, where around a 1-kmg road stretch was completely damaged by the flooded Beas. There is no sign of the four-lane road left in the area. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has opened the road temporarily to one-way traffic. As a result, the Raison stretch has become a traffic bottleneck and long road jams are being witnessed there. Policemen have been deployed there to regulate traffic.

The flooded Beas washed away the highway a few kilometres ahead of Patlikuhal, about 20 km from Kullu towards Manali. The NHAI has temporarily restored traffic movement at the road stretch but it can again suffer damage in case of heavy rain causing floods in the Beas.

The highway was completely washed away near 15 Mile beyond Patlikuhal towards Manali and the work to repair it is underway to ensure connectivity between Patlikuhal and Manali via the right bank road. At present, traffic is being diverted via the left bank Nagar road from Patlikuhal, which is also experiencing traffic jams.

From the Manali side, the NHAI has temporarily reopened the highway up to Klath towards Patlikuhal. The NHAI is trying to ensure temporary connectivity between Patlikuhal and Manali via the right bank road. It will reduce traffic congestion on the left bank Nagar road between Patlikuhal and Manali.

Kullu Deputy Commissioner Ashutosh Garg said that the Public Works Department had suffered a huge loss of Rs 280 crore in Kullu district, where 170 roads were blocked due to the rain disaster. Of the 170 blocked roads, 52 had been reopened, while the work was in progress to restore the remaining 118 roads.