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All rivers swollen in HP, 4 dists on high alert
69 villages of Jalandhar sensitive; Kalka wettest in region

Shimla, July 6
All major rivers and their tributaries are in spate in Himachal Pradesh, following incessant heavy rains during past 36 hours, paralysing normal life at many places.

A high alert has been sounded in Kulu, Mandi, Kinnaur and Shimla districts, as swollen water of the furious Beas submerged 5-km stretch of the Chandigarh-Manali national highway near Hanogi, 35 km from Mandi, and flood water entered some houses and markets in the Sainj area of the Kulu district. Vehicular traffic has been suspended on the Mandi-Kulu stretch of National Highway-21 and hundreds of vehicles are stranded.

Swirling waters of River Parvati washed away a school building, a bridge and an under-construction building at Ghushani in the Kulu district and three persons, including the chowkidar of the school, were missing. “An unauthorised colony of a construction company was also washed away, but there was no casualty, as all the persons had been evacuated in advance,” Senior Superintendent of Police A. P. Singh said.

The districts of Kulu and Mandi were under increased risk due to rise in level of the Beas, but the threat was confined to areas along the banks of the river and the reports about washing away of some villages were incorrect, he added.

Flash floods in River Baspa in the kinnaur district washed away the ayurvedic dispensary at Kilba and also swept away the retaining walls and foot bridges, endangering some houses.

Three trucks and one JVC was also washed away at Karchham and the relief and restoration works in the district were hampered. The Sangla valley has been cut off from Karchham, as a vital bridge at Kilba has been washed away and the Chitkul-Kilba road is also blocked due to landslide.

The flash floods in Rivers Andhra and Pabbar in the Rohroo area of the Shimla district washed away an LPG godown, a forest rest house and also damaged some houses. The Pabbar changed its course, cutting into the banks at some places.

All major power projects have opened their floodgates and a general alert has been sounded, advising the people living on the banks of the river downstream the dams to move to safer places. A bus trapped under six to seven feet of water near Hanogi in Mandi district was yet to be retrieved, but the passengers were taken out safely from the bus.

The Chief Secretary, Mr S. S. Parmar, called a high-level meeting of officials to take stock of the situation and review the relief and restoration works in the tribal district of Kinnaur.

Meanwhile, traffic remained suspended on the Hindustan-Tibet national highway beyond Wangtoo for the 10th day today and the Shimla-Jubbal-Rohroo road was also blocked due to a massive landslide near Nihri and Chhol Nallah, 62 km from here.

The district authorities of Kinnaur managed to transport peas from the cut off district via Spiti, official sources said.

Jalandhar: The Jalandhar district administration is all set with a contingency plan to meet any challenge of flood with the identification of 69 villages as “most sensitive” and 95 villages as “sensitive” for flood due to heavy rain in the region.

”We have already chalked out a contingency plan to meet any challenge of flood due to the overflow of the Sutlej river and, in case of emergency, special teams of officers will evacuate the affected villagers within no time,” Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kumar Gupta told reporters here today.

He claimed, for each village, a special team of six officials had been formed and a particular place, that would be safe for the evacuees during flood, had been marked. The people of the area had been told about this, to avoid any confusion in case of flood.
Seven distributaries of the Sutlej, nearly 70-km-long, had been cleared at the cost of Rs 49 lakh and second meeting to review the preparedness would be held on July 8. Flood control rooms in every subdivision have been established.

The weather office has forecast moderate to rather heavy rain at many places in the two states in the coming 24 hours, a Meteorological Office spokesman said here.

Chandigarh had recorded 35.5 mm of rain till 8.30 am this morning, the spokesman said.

Hisar, Karnal and Panchkula in Haryana and Ludhiana, Patiala, Nangal and Balachaur (Hoshiarpur) in Punjab were among the places that received rain in the last 24 hours.

Traffic was moving at a slow speed in the region due to water logging at many places. — PTI