Tourists throng Kullu-Manali and Lahaul Valley to ring in New Year; police find it hard to control traffic

Dipender Manta

Mandi, December 30

A large number of tourists are thronging Kullu-Manali and the Lahaul Valley to ring in the New Year.

To regulate the traffic, additional police force has been deployed at key locations on the Chandigarh-Manali-Leh highway.

There are a few traffic bottlenecks on the highway, where police are struggling to manage the traffic.

Owing to the damage caused by heavy rain this year to the Chandigarh-Manali highway near Pandoh, traffic has been diverted to an alternative narrow bypass road, resulting in a big traffic jam.

Visitors travelling in light vehicles have been urged by the police to use the alternative route between Mandi and Kullu via Kataula to avoid traffic jam.

Similarly, in Kullu and Manali, additional police force has been deployed to manage the traffic. A large number of tourist vehicles were seen moving towards Solang and Lahaul valleys on Saturday. The movement of traffic was quite slow beyond Manali towards the Lahaul valley owing to the traffic rush.

The weather in the region is cloudy and tourists expect a fresh spell of snow on New Year.