The beginning of monsoon in Himachal Pradesh has disrupted normal life at several places of Himachal Pradesh as incessant rain during the past 24 hours have left at least 80 roads closed for vehicular traffic, a large number of water supply schemes and electricity transformers have also been damaged .
“As many as 80 roads including 59 in Mandi, 21 in Shimla, one in Kangra and several others were closed for vehicular traffic following rains, 17 transformers were disrupted in the state”, according to the state emergency operation centre.
A portion of the stretch between Mandi and Pandoh of the Kiratpur -Manali four-lane highway which had developed cracks on Wednesday caved in on Thursday, forcing officials to allow only one-way traffic.
.
The disruption of traffic on Kiratpur- Manali National Highway (NH) has left the hoteliers and locals worried as the Pandoh stretch of NH was repaired recently remaining disrupted for several months after extensive damages during the last monsoon fury. The retaining wall was raised after spending huge amounts on it, raising eyebrows on the quality of work.
An official of the NHAI said, “Efforts are on to repair the road and restore normal traffic.”
Heavy rain has disrupted life in several parts of Shimla town and its surrounding areas. Vehicular traffic was disrupted near Vikas Nagar and Shimla barrier (Chakkar) in the morning.
Narkanda in Shimla district recorded the lowest minimum temperature of 13.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday night while Una was the hottest during the day with a maximum temperature of 33.6 degrees Celsius.
The Shimla meteorological office on Thursday issued an ‘orange’ alert, warning heavy to very heavy rains accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places till Friday and warned risk of flash floods in a few areas in Mandi, Sirmaur and Shimla districts.