Portion of Subathu-Dharampur road sinks after heavy rains

Ambika Sharma

Solan, August 24

A portion of the Subathu-Dharampur road lying in the cantonment town of Subathu has been converted into a sinking zone following a spell of heavy rain last evening.

Subathu town has been cut-off from Dharampur as gaping cracks have appeared on the surface of the main road following which it was closed for traffic. An internal road leading from the 14 Gorkha Training Centre (GTC) has also been damaged and major engineering endeavours are required to repair the damage, informed an official.

Seven to eight buildings of the 14 GTC have also been damagedafter appearance of cracks in them. Power and water supply has been snapped as its infrastructure was damaged in the rain.

A ten-bedded section hospital was also damaged with a portion collapsing and another developing big cracks. A one crore litre water tank was emptied well in time, which helped avert inundation of the centre.

Several trees have also been uprooted in the cantonment town. Several buildings including one housing a MES complaint cell was damaged with trees having fallen on it.

Residents will now have to take a longer detour from Solan to reach Chandigarh or Dharampur which is an additional journey of at least an hour and a half.

Fearing damage, the defence authorities had vacated the affected area, including the hospital, after cracks had started appearing in the some buildings few days ago after heavy rains.

Though work to rectify the power and water services had begun by the staff of the Military Engineering Services (MES) but it was slated to take time to restore them.

A hill lying above the centre was sinking and at least 7 to 8 buildings were damaged. A village lying atop the hill, Chaproli, has also been hit and residents are living in fear.

To make matters worse, huge amount of debris, boulders and fallen trees were continuously flowing below the centre through a nallah at Khaltu village.

The villagers were feeling threatened with the copious flow of muck and boulders which was eroding the village paths and flowing continuously.