Badrinath National Highway closed again following massive landslide near Patalganga

Gopeshwar, July 10

A massive landslide near Patalganga between Pipalkoti and Joshimath blocked the Badrinath National highway once again on Wednesday.

The landslide kicked off a huge cloud of rubble, which took some time to settle down.

Around 11:15 am on Wednesday, a large part of the hill slid down in Patalganga without any rain, the district disaster management office here said.

It fell over the mouth of a tunnel along the national highway damaging it in the process as it carried with it lakhs of tonnes of soil, stones and big boulders.

The Badrinath NH has already been blocked by landslide debris for the past couple of days. The tunnel was built a few years ago in view of frequent landslides in the area.

The landslide was so powerful that the entire Alaknanda and Patal Ganga valley seemed to tremble for a few seconds, said Vikram Singh of Lanji village, situated on the other side of the Alaknanda river, just opposite the tunnel.

Fear ran through people going to cast their votes in the bypoll to the Badrinath Assembly seat but they could not resist the temptation of watching the spectacle of a huge cloud of dust and debris rising in the air in the wake of the landslide.