Himachal Pradesh: 208 roads closed, 91 dead amid heavy monsoon rains

Shimla, Jul 10 (PTI) Heavy rain in the past few days has led to the closure of 208 roads, including the Mandi-Dharampur stretch of the National Highway-3 that connects Attari in Punjab with Leh in Ladakh, officials said on Thursday.

Mandi, which was ravaged by 10 cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides, leading to the death of 15 people in the intervening night of June 30 and July 1, saw 134 roads closed while 11 transformers and 204 water supply schemes were affected.

Isolated places in Sirmaur and Bilaspur districts were lashed by heavy rain. Dhaulakuan was the wettest in the state, recording 168.5 mm of rain since Wednesday evening, followed by Bilaspur, 121 mm.

Low to moderate rains occurred in several parts of the state. Manali received 47 mm of rain, Jubbarhatti 45.2 mm, Nagrota Suriya 42.4 mm, Poanta Sahib 38.4 mm, Kangra 38.2 mm, Sujanpur Tira 37.5 mm, Jatton Barrage 34.6 mm, Nahan 34.1 mm, Guler 32.8 mm and Kasauli 20 mm.

The local weather office has issued a yellow alert of heavy rainfall at isolated places in three to seven districts in the state from Sunday to Wednesday. It also warned of low to moderate flash flood risk in parts of Chamba, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla and Sirmaur districts.

Since the onset of Monsoon on June 20, Himachal Pradesh has received 30 per cent excess rains, and the state suffered losses to the tune of Rs 750 crore as 31 flash floods, 22 cloudbursts, and 17 landslides, along with heavy rains, claimed several lives and damaged buildings, agriculture and forest lands.

A total of 91 people died, 55 of them in rain-related incidents, 36 in road accidents and 131 sustained injuries, while 34 people are still missing, officials added.

Narkanda was coldest during the night with a low of 12.2 degrees Celsius, while Una was hottest in the day with a maximum temperature of 32.4 degrees Celsius. PTI