Mandi banker treks 30 km on snow to be home on time for his wedding

Tribune News Service

Dipender Manta

Mandi, March 10

The inclement weather of Lahaul and Spiti district is set to make the wedding ceremony of Aijol Thakur memorable for lifetime. He had to go through a harrowing time reaching his native place Sarkaghat in Mandi from the snowbound Lahaul valley for his wedding ceremony, scheduled for tomorrow.

Nuptial knot today

• A majority of the roads in the Lahaul valley are still blocked due to the recent snowfall. The BRO is struggling to restore the roads for traffic movement
• Finding no means to reach his native place from Udaipur in Lahaul, where he is posted, banker Aijol Thakur decided to go on foot; his wedding is scheduled to take place on Monday

Thakur is an employee of Punjab National Bank, posted at Udaipur in Lahaul and Spiti. He had to reach home for the wedding, but got stuck in the Lahaul valley because of the recent heavy snowfall in the region.

A majority of the roads in the Lahaul valley are still blocked due to the snowfall. The Border Roads Organisation is struggling to restore these to traffic. Finding no means to reach his native place before March 11, Thakur decided to start his journey on foot to reach Mandi from Udaipur. He started his journey from Udaipur towards Atal Tunnel on Friday and reached Mandi on Saturday night. It included a nearly 12-hour trek.

Talking to The Tribune, Thakur said, “I trekked around 30 km on snow from Udaipur to reach Atal Tunnel. The distance from Udaipur to the tunnel is around 70 km. A stretch of road between Udaipur and Atal Tunnel was restored by the BRO, while a nearly 30 km stretch was covered with a thick blanket of snow. In such adverse circumstances, it was a challenging task for me to reach my native place on time for my wedding. My family was worried as the Lahaul valley is prone to avalanches during winter.”

He said, “It was a harsh experience. I trekked around 30 km, while around 40 km was covered using a vehicle. On Friday, I started my journey from Udaipur along with a few people and reached Sissu at night. I stayed at Sissu. The next day, I started trekking towards Atal Tunnel. From there, I took the help of a BRO vehicle to reach the Solang valley. From there, I hired a taxi and reached my native place Chail village in Sarkaghat late on Saturday evening. My family members were relieved when I entered my house. Preparations were underway for the wedding ceremony.”

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