Heavy tourist footfall leads to traffic snarls on Manali highway

Kullu, June 6

Due to the ongoing four-lane work from Mandi to Jhiri and an increasing number of tourist vehicles to the famous tourist destination of Manali, especially during the weekends, it is taking about eight hours instead of three hours to commute a distance of 110 km between Mandi and Manali.

Commuters have to face a lot of inconvenience due to traffic jams at various places on the stretch.

Around 2,800 vehicles of other states were registered in the Green Tax barrier at Manali on Saturday while the highest record since its inception has been around 3,300 vehicles in a day. About 16,000 vehicles from out of the state were registered in the green tax barrier in the past week. A large number of luxury buses are also coming to Manali each day.

The vehicles and buses are being halted due to the ongoing work of the National Highway (NH) from Deod of Pandoh to Hanogi Mata Mandir. Long queues of vehicles are seen on both sides of the NH. Large cargo vehicles and buses are also getting stuck. Vehicles are moving at a snail’s pace and commuters are facing problems due to the chaos. Private and government buses, too, are reaching the destination late by two or three hours. Commuters Dinesh, Sagar and Suresh said there was a problem due to the non-deployment of adequate police personnel in most of the places due to which vehicles are being released here after half an hour, instead of 10 minutes, clogging up the NH.

Tourists from other states, including Delhi, Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana, are making a beeline for Manali to get relief from the rising heat of the plains.

The number of tourists in Manali is increasing day by day. Due to this, there is no space to park vehicles in Manali and tourists are forced to wander here and there in search of parking space. Some of them are parking their vehicles on roadsides, which creates further traffic congestion.

Kullu Superintendent of Police Gurdev Sharma said in view of the tourist season, about 300 jawans have been deployed from Bajaura to Rohtang Pass. The duties of jawans have also been assigned in the tourist areas of Jibhi, Tirthan, Manikaran valley and other rural areas. He added that negligence of some tourists is also coming to the fore and they are being fined.

FOUR-LANE WORK A BIG HURDLE

• Vehicles and buses have to halt due to the ongoing work on the national highway from Deod of Pandoh to Hanogi Mata Mandir
• Long queues are seen on both sides of the NH
• Vehicles are moving at a snail’s pace and commuters are facing inconvenience
• Private and government buses, too, are reaching the destination late by two or three hours