Traffic on Manali-Leh highway comes to a halt amid snowfall
DHARAMSHALA: : A fresh spell of snow in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh brought traffic to a halt on the Manali-Leh highway, while the ChandigarhManali highway also remained blocked for several hours due to a landslide triggered by heavy rain at Pandoh in Mandi on Tuesday.
Lahaul-Spiti superintendent of police Manav Verma said that due to heavy rain and snowfall, traffic had been stopped beyond Darcha. Traffic was also halted on the Darcha-Shinkula road and Koksar-Losar-Kaza highway (NH-505).
The Udaipur-Pangi road is shut since Monday due to a landslide and a damaged bridge, Verma said, urging people to avoid unnecessary travel.
There is a heavy traffic jam on the Chandigarh-Manali highway after the landslide near Pandoh.
The road was reopened in the afternoon.
Girl falls off cliff in Sirmaur, dies
A 19-year-old girl died after falling off a cliff at Mathana village in Dadahu area of Sirmaur district. She had taken her cattle to a nearby jungle for grazing when she slipped and fell into a gorge on her way back home. She was rushed to the Dadahu hospital, where doctors declared her dead. Widespread rain across the state damaged fruit crops, while it brought relief to farmers waiting to sow kharif crops.
Damage to houses, power transmission lines and water supply schemes were reported.
The rain brought relief from the scorching heat as the mercury fell several notches across the state. Pandoh was the wettest place, recording 43.5mm of rainfall followed by Mandi that got 35.2mm and Dharamshala 28.2mm of rainfall.