Manali-Keylong road restored, Lahaul valley residents relieved

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Mandi, March 12

The BRO today restored the Manali-Leh highway for the movement of 4×4 vehicles between Manali and Keylong after a gap of 11 days. The residents of Lahaul valley heaved a sigh of relief as they were cut off from the rest of the state for so many days.

Due to recent heavy snowfall, a majority of roads were blocked in Lahaul and Spiti district, including Manali-Leh highway and Sumdo-Kaza-Gramphu highway, which cut off the Lahaul valley from the rest of the state. BRO workforce worked relentlessly to remove snow from the road and finally restored the Manali-Leh highway for 4×4 vehicles. Now, widening of the Manali-Leh highway is in progress.

The BRO has already restored Udaipur-Keylong road to traffic. Similarly, in Spiti valley, the BRO has restored Sumdo-Kaza road to traffic to ensure road connectivity between Spiti and Kinnaur. The PWD authorities are endeavouring hard to restore village roads to traffic in the district.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Kaza Rahul Jain said, “This year more snowfall occurred as compared to the previous years. The restoration work of the roads under the Public Works Department has been going on since March 3. More than 200 people, who had been stranded in Spiti valley during the snowfall, were rescued and sent to Kinnaur via the Kaza-Sumdo road. The orders have been issued to the BRO to restore the Rangrik-Losar road as early as possible.”

“BRO’s workforce and machinery have restored the route from Losar to Kyoto. Along with this, the road till Rangrik-Murang has also been cleared of snow. Losar to Kaza road will also be restored in next five days. The Public Works Department has deployed five dozers, six JCBs, four camper vehicles and two dippers for clearing snow. The PWD has restored the road up to Telling village in the Pin Valley. A target has been set to restore the road up to Mud village in the next four days,” he said.