Rain triggers landslides, disrupt traffic in Solan dist

Life was thrown out of gear as incessant rain lashed the district since last night causing several landslides and hitting the smooth flow of vehicular traffic.

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Dharampur-Subathu, Dharampur-Kasauli, Jandauri-Pratha-Nabon, Kunihar-Totu, Waknaghat-Mamlig, Kasauli-Jangeshu roads were hit by landslides. Streams of water were seen jetting out of the fragile hills making travelling risky. Several trees, which were uprooted, also blocked the passage leaving the vehicles stranded on various roads.

With cloudy conditions continuing to persist throughout the day, more rain was expected to pound the district in the hours ahead. According to the rain monitoring stations report, Nauni received 53.6 mm precipitation followed Nalagarh 80 mm, Kandaghat 37 mm and Kasauli 27 mm in the last 24 hours.

Commuters travelling to their workplace in the morning on these roads were inconvenienced as mounds of earth and boulders, besides uprooted trees, blocked the roads forcing them to take detours. Vehicles lined up on both sides of the landslide-hit Waknaghat-Mamlig, Kunihar-Totu, Dharampur-Kasauli road stretches, etc.

A two-wheeler rider was stuck on the Dharampur-Kasauli road where uprooted trees, muddy water and boulders rolling down from the hill blocked the road. A stretch of at least 50-m was hit, forcing the commuters to take the arterial road via Sanawar to Kasauli from Dharampur.

House of a woman Savitri was damaged at Garkhal village in Kasauli subdivision. She suffered a loss of 15,000, according to officials.

According to the public utility disruption report, at least six roads in Solan were blocked. PWD workers, however, swung into action and managed to restore most of the roads by afternoon.

The administration has advised the people to avoid undue travel in view of the fragile hills which have become vulnerable to landslides due to seepage of water.