Red alert in Himachal: Heavy rains to continue; 666 roads, including 4 national highways, blocked

In an alarming situation, Himachal Pradesh, which has already suffered immense loss of lives as well as properties due to torrential rains, is very likely to witness extreme rainfall in isolated areas, as the State’s Meteorological Department has issued red weather warnings for several districts for the next two days.

As per the department, a red alert has been issued for Mandi, Kangra, Sirmaur, Una, Hamirpur and Bilaspur districts for September 1, resulting in a few spells of extreme rain in isolated parts of these districts. Additionally, an orange weather warning has also been issued for Shimla, Kullu, Chamba, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti for September 1 while a yellow weather warning has been issued for Solan.

Red weather warning has also been issued for Chamba, Mandi, Kullu and Kangra districts for September 2 while an orange weather warning has also been issued for Shimla, Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti and Sirmour districts along with another yellow weather warning for Solan district for the same day.

In view of heavy rainfall, several districts, including Shimla, Solan Sirmaur and Salooni subdivision in Chamba district have announced to keep all the educational institutions closed on September 1.

Meanwhile, as many as 666 roads, including four National Highways (NH), remain blocked across the state while at least 985 distribution transformers also remain disrupted as a result of torrential rain that continues to wreak havoc across Himachal Pradesh.

According to the State Emergency Operation Centre, as many as 253 roads in Chamba, 204 including NH 03 in Mandi, 176 including NH 305 in Kullu, 69 in Shimla, 61 in Kangra, 30 in Solan, 29 including NH 707 in Sirmour, 23 in Una, 11 in Lahaul and Spiti, five in Bilaspur, two including NH 5 in Kinnaur and one in Hamirpur are blocked, disrupting the traffic movement many parts of the state.

In Kinnaur, the district administration has decided to keep NH 05 shut for all vehicles from 8 pm till 5 am at Nigulsari in district Kinnaur till further orders in view of the landslides and shooting stones at the spot. DC Kinnaur Amit Kumar has instructed the Superintendent of Police to deploy adequate force to regulate traffic at the landslide prone spots. He has further instructed SDM Bhawanagar to ensure proper lighting on the affected stretch to ensure safety.

In Shimla, traffic movement on Cart Road and Vikasnagar-Panthaghati road was also disrupted for a few hours due to the roads being blocked as a result of landslides.

Also, heavy rain continued to occur across the state during the last 24 hours, with Malraon village in Bilaspur receiving 90 mm rain, highest in the state. Similarly, Kangra received 45.4 mm, Una 37.2 mm, Kufri 35 mm, Palampur 32 mm, Shimla 18.2 mm, Manali 18 mm, Mandi 15.8 mm, Sundernagar 13.8 mm, Paonta Sahib 12.6 mm, Dharamshala 8.8 mm, Kasauli 8 mm and Solan 4.4 mm.