HP road blocked, thousands spend night in vehicles

Dipender Manta

Mandi, June 26

One-way traffic was restored on the Chandigarh-Manali highway after almost 23 hours by the district administration today. The restoration of traffic came as a big relief for thousands of commuters who had been stuck on the highway since Sunday evening.

Traffic chaos on Shimla highway

Solan: Tourists on the Parwanoo-Shimla stretch of the National Highway -5 had a harrowing time as vehicles moved at a snail’s pace. It took at least 15 to 20 minutes to cover a kilometre.

Initially, the road was blocked between Mandi and Kullu for three hours after a flash flood at Khotinala on the highway on Sunday evening. Thereafter, major landslides occurred between Mandi and Pandoh, blocking the highway completely. Due to darkness and heavy landslides, the restoration work could not be taken up during night. With the alternative route via Kataula also blocked, the traffic came to a standstill between Mandi and Kullu. As more than 5,000 vehicles were stuck between Mandi and Kullu, thousands of tourists spent night within their vehicles. The Mandi and Kullu administrations arranged accommodation for stranded tourists at gurdwaras and a few other places.

Amandeep of Haryana, Rahul Kumar from Delhi and Ravikant of Bengaluru, who were on the way to Manali, said, “We spent a sleepless night within vehicles because of the road blockade.”

The most affected were families which were travelling along with their children to enjoy vacation in Kullu and Manali.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mandi, Sagar Chander, said, “The highway was blocked around 6 pm on Sunday. Today it was reopened for one-way traffic around 4.50 pm. Over 3,000 vehicles were stuck on the Kullu side, while over 2,000 on the Mandi side. Now, we are clearing traffic from the Manali side towards Chandigarh. Thereafter, the vehicles will be allowed to go towards Kullu from the Mandi side. In the daytime, an alternative route between Mandi and Kullu via Kataula was reopened.”

“Around 40 vehicles, including a school bus carrying students from Chamba district, were stuck on the Prashar road on Sunday evening, due to a flash flood in the Bagi nullah. They were accommodated in a rest house by the local administration,” he said. “A woman was washed away in a rivulet at Navlay village under the Padhar police station. An NDRF team is carrying out a search operation to locate her,” he added.