Rain wreaks havoc in Solan; 7 dead

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 13

Torrential rain has claimed the lives of seven persons, including four children, in Solan district on Monday. Damage caused to roads and bridges runs into crores of rupees.

Four members of a family were buried under debris when a retaining wall adjacent to a hill caved in and fell on the house at Chakla village near Kurgal in Kandaghat around 4 am.

Though villagers and the local administration tried to rescue the family, the latter could not be saved. The deceased were identified as Devinder (32), his wife Meena (28), son Aditya (six) and daughter Harshita (three).

Kandaghat SDM Dr Sanjeev Dhiman said it took them three hours to pull out the bodies.

In another incident, a 12-year-old boy, Himanshu, studying in Eicher School, Parwanoo, drowned in a local nullah at Rani village near the Kaushalya river in Parwanoo. He, along with his grandfather, was trying to cross the nullah when he slipped.

He was washed away in the gushing waters which merged into the Kaushalya river and his body could not be traced.

Parwanoo DSP Ajay Rana said though police personnel, Home Guards and the fire staff had launched a search operation, the body could not be found till the evening.

HP State Electricity Board Limited suffered a loss of Rs 54.90 lakh due to a snag developed in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area as well as in Parwanoo.

Its Jharmajri-based substation, from where a major chunk of the 70 MVA power is supplied, was submerged. It took the staff of the local fire station nearly four hours to pump out more than 1 lakh-litre water at the speed of 270 litre per minute, said Superintending Engineer SK Sen.

An approach road to the Sadhupul bridge enroute Chail caved in due to a sudden surge in the water level of the river, causing a loss of Rs 8 lakh-Rs 10 lakh to the Public Works Department.

Executive Engineer, PWD, Kulbir Kumar, said though the bridge was intact, the damaged to approach road had rendered it unsafe, adding that it had to be closed to traffic.

The high water level led the river to change its course and the gushing waters crossed the last pier erected on the Chail side, eroding the wall raised along the approach road.

The bridge was inaugurated in October 2016 and was constructed at a cost of Rs 2.8 crore. It was constructed during the British Raj and had collapsed in 2014.

A water park, constructed with an outlay of Rs 1.25 crore and inaugurated in Sadhupul in June last year, was inundated and a major part of its infrastructure was washed away. Questions have been raised over the selection of its site as the flood threat has been ignored while constructing it. The district received 300 mm of rain in the past 24 hours.

Train services on the Kalka-Shimla heritage rail track remained suspended due to several landslides.

Rainwater accumulated at various places, including the Kandaghat railway station, and the staff were engaged in clearing the slush and water from the track.

Several landslides blocked the traffic on the Parwanoo-Shimla NH-22 and a major landslide near Chakki-Ka-Mor inconvenienced commuters stuck since morning. Though the traffic was restored through the single lane by afternoon, vehicles moved at a snail’s pace, owing to landslides and a large number of vehicles on the highway.

A 38-year-old youth, Deepak Kumar, was buried under debris near Sai Temple, Garkhal, in the morning.

Another child was reportedly washed away in Surajpur near Piplughat in Arki sub-division, said ADM Vivek Chandel. He added that Rs 55,000 had been disbursed as per the laid-down norms.

The ADM said four head of cattle had perished, causing a loss of Rs 95,000 to owners, while 24 cowsheds had been damaged. The IPH Department suffered a loss of Rs 13,35,000 on account of various irrigation and water supply schemes in the district. This rainy season, the district suffered a loss of Rs 37,24,52,703.