Mandi, July 7
The surging waters of the Beas and the Satlej brought cheers to BBMB officials as reservoirs at Pandoh in Mandi, Bhakra in Bilaspur and Pong in Kangra districts where generation will pick up as soon as the silt discharge stops damaging turbines.

But the Beas river has continued to sound a red alert in low-lying areas in the Mandi district for the last three days.

Talking to The Tribune here after the conclusion of the Raising Day of the 990 MW Beas-Sutlej Link (BSL) project at Pandoh today, BBMB engineers said the Bhakra and Pong dams had received a good quantity of water that could boost the generation in the northern grid.

The inflow of water in the Pandoh dam was over 1.23 lakh cusecs last evening, but today it has come down to over 75,000 cusecs, said the Superintending Engineer, BBMB, Mr ML Gupta.

“The Pong dam level stands at 307 feet while that of Bhakhra is about 100-ft below from its normal capacity”, he said. The demand for electricity in Punjab had gone down due to the heavy rains, revealed the BBMB engineers. “The generation of power is continuing at Dehar, Nangal and Pong power houses”, they said.

The BBMB continue to open all five gates of the Pandoh dam for the third days today as a precautionary measure, said the engineers.

The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mandi, Mr R.S. Gupta, said they had already sounded an alert along the low-lying areas till Dharampur along the Beas as the water level had swelled for the last two days due to the opening up of the Pandoh dam’s flood gates and the heavy rains.

Shimla, July 7
Lack of adequate machinery is hampering the restoration of the flood-ravaged National Highway-21, which has been breached at 79 places between Wangtu and Shalkar.

The Border Road Organisation (BRO), which maintains the road beyond Wangtu, has sent a requisition to the Indian Air Force for airlifting heavy machinery so that the restoration work in portions that was cut-off due to collapse of bridges could be expedited.

As the BRO has been pre-occupied with the construction of an alternative road to bypass the treacherous Malling nullah, most of its heavy construction machinery was deployed upstream between Khab and Shalkar. Consequently, very little machinery sufficient for routine maintenance is available in the worst-affected 22 km stretch from Tapri to Powari. Vast stretches of the road have either been washed away or extensively damaged at 34 places on this small portion. In all, 10.71 km of road-length had been washed away.

The BRO has mobilised machinery and manpower from the Beacon project and the district administration has also arranged earthmovers, road rollers and other equipment from the PWD and private contractors. However, in the absence of bridges over the Sutlej, it is not able to deploy it at the required points.

Brig K.P.Singh, Chief Engineer of the Deepak Project, said big choppers capable of carrying 8 to 10 tonnes would be required. The heavy machinery would have to be dismantled for airlifting and than reassembled at the site.

While portions where the road had breached would be restored over the next two months, work on the four bailey bridges, which had been washed away, would be started only after the water level in the Sutlej recedes.

There were technical constraints as bailey bridges capable of enduring such heavy traffic load could only have a maximum span of 200 ft. Thus, the abetments had to be raised virtually from the edge of the river and as such construction work could be undertaken only after water recedes. Once abetments were in place the launching of bridge did not take much time, Brigadier Singh explained.

In all, four major bridges on the highway were washed away and one suffered extensive damage.

However, bailey bridges are required immediately only at Khab, Kharo and Akpa. At Karcham, where the main bridge was washed away, the permanent bridge constructed by the J.P. Industries will be used by realigning the National Highway. The main structure of the Shongtong bridge is intact and only the abetments have been damaged which were repairable.

The bailey bridges are a temporary measures and ultimately permanent bridges will have to be provided.

Mandi, July 7
Though work on the Parbati project in Kulu district has come to standstill due to the washing away of the approach of “haul” roads by the surging nullahs and rivers, work on the Larji project in Mandi district had resumed as the Beas and its tributaries have started receding.

The Parbati and the Jigrai nullah in Barshaini in Kulu district, where 20 workers were trapped in a tunnel due to a flashflood last year, washed away the link roads to the dam site at Pulga and Shilagarh this time, bringing the work on the Parbati project (stage II and III) to a standstill at least for a week.

The general manager, Parbati project (state II) Mr A.K. Mishra, said so far there had been no damage to life of property. “But the work has been suspended for the time being as the approach or haul roads to the project sites at Sainj, Shilagrah and Pulga have been washed away by the nullahs, feeding the Parbati, Sainj and Tirthen rivers in this district”, he said.

Mr Mishra said work on the underground tunnel was continuing, but they had suspended work on the surface.

Work on the Larji project was hit as the surging Beas had deposited silt in the conduits leading to the dam coming up downstream from the confluence of the Beas, Tirthan and Sainj rivers at Larji, reports said.

The Chief Engineer, Larji project Mr Arun Sharma, said that apart from the silt in the conduits, there was no major damage to the project and the machinery. “The work was affected for the past two days due to the flood in the Beas due to heavy rains, but we have resumed most of the work today,” he added.

“This time Beas has recorded over 2400 cumecs of water as compared to 3000 cumecs in 1995 when the flood in the level had caused extensive damage in the Kulu valley”, he added.

Mr Sharma said the water level had receded in the Sainj, Tirthan and Beas rivers during the past 24 hours as the rain had stopped.

Parwanoo, July 7
As downpour exceeds the tourist rush to hills has started declining. The tourist rush at Kasauli, Barog, Dagshai and Jabli has started to decline now. The tourist season in this summer has so far remained good as compared to corresponding period of past few years.

According to occupancy data, the tourist rush was more than satisfactory despite summer had started in late. The tourist inflow picked up after May 15 and remained good till June. The hotels in the areas had recorded occupancy between 80 to 100 per cent in past one and half month.

However, after the monsoon occupancy in the hotels had come down to half. It was on decline with each passing day. Though temperature in the area in June was recorded quite above than the normal but yet it was comfortable for tourists. Even repeated traffic jams on the Kalka-Shimla national highway have failed to dampen the spirit of tourist.

Nurpur, July 7
In a bizarre incident, a father-in-law allegedly raped his daughter-in-law and sexually exploited her for over two years. The police yesterday arrested Kura Ram (60) of nearby Ondh village.

On the complaint of the victim (24), the police registered an FIR under Sections 376 and 506 of the IPC against the accused on Tuesday.

According to the police, the rape victim had been married to Ghian Chand, a son of the accused, in 2001. The accused, a widower, allegedly raped his daughter-in-law for over two years and threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed their physical relations to anyone.

She has been living with her parents under Larath gram panchayat for the past one year. Her parents also lodged a complaint with the local gram panchayat but the accused did not turn up despite summoning several times. She did not lodge a police complaint out of fear. But after waiting for one year for justice at the panchayat level, the victim lodged a complaint with the local police.

Solan, July 7
A court here allowed bail to three of the 11 persons nabbed from a hotel at Kumarhatti on Tuesday night for alleged involvement in immoral trafficking. Three men, including Vikas and Vijay Kumar hailing from Chandigarh and Ajay Kumar from Una were let-off on surety of Rs 25,000 each last evening.

The police raided several places to nab other three men who fled the hotel. A white maruti car (CH-01-Q-7159) impounded from the hotel and used by deceased Harish was registered in the name of a woman from Chandigarh and bore a press sticker. This was done to avoid police action. It is said that the car was often seen parked outside the same hotel. It was learnt that seven women arrested in the case had pointed to the involvement of one hotel owner who ran the trade.

Sources revealed that the hotel owner’s involvement could not be ruled out. Hotel’s receptionist has been arrested. The hotel owner was undergoing imprisonment in a criminal case at Ambala. Sources revealed that he had been booked in Sirmaur district for defrauding people through a G.P Finance company some time back. 

Shimla, July 7
The state government has promoted three Deputy Inspector Generals of Police to the rank of the Inspector Generals of Police.

Mr S.P. Kushal, DIG (CID), has been promoted and posted as IG. (Law and Order), while Mr S.R. Mardi, DIG (Vigilance), takes over as IG (Vigilance).

Mr Jagjit Gupta, DIG (Railway and Traffic) has been posted as IG. (Armed Police and Training) on promotion.