SHIMLA: The capital city has been severely hit by an “avalanche of landslides” that uprooted two dozens of deodar trees at Khalini, Tutti Kandi and Vikas Nagar area that damaged over 6 vehicles.
The residents in Khalini Forest colony terror was unleashed at 6 AM on Sunday when one after other over a dozen deodar trees fell on the parking and on the road with car owners having a close call.
A tree uprooted and fell on the BCS road in late evening hours that damaged transmission line and plunged the BCS, Kangnadhar and New Shimla into blacohout for three hours.
Panthaghati-BCS-Vikasngar road was bloked due to the fallen trees in the evening hours.
BBMB opened the gates of Bhaghra dam sounding an alerts in lowlying areas of the Una and Punjab today as the Bhakhra dam was filled to its capacity.
Jiyuni Khad was in spate at Pandoh Mandi where the dozen houses were evacuated as the river water was hurting close to the houses.
In area between Namohl and Brhampukhar on the Shimla-Bilaspur highway, several houses and cars were damaged or buried after the entire road sank in the massive landslide.
IMD Centre Shimla has sounded red alert of Moderate to heavy rainfall at many places very likely to continue over the state with very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in the district of Chamba Kangra Hamirpur Mandi Bilaspur Solan Shimla Kullu and Sirmaur for the next three hours today.
Very Heavy rainfall at many places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in Beas, Ranjit sagar and Pong dam catchment area.
Heavy rainfall at many places with very heavy rainfall at isolated places in Sutlej catchment area
The main Shimla- Kalka- Chandigarh National Highway was reopened at IPM after it was blocked at Chakki Morh where an avalanche of landslides continued to fall on the problematic stretch of the highway, resulted in a long rows of vehicles stranded on both sides of the highway throughout the day on Sunday.
The blockade has exposed the NHAI’s engineering skills, leading to disruptions in essential supplies as it has failed to fix the stretch since August 2.
Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri inspected the Chakki Morh Landslide and made his observation clear that NHAI has created trouble here as the entire area is geologically unstable.
"Even we had advised against cutting the hill vertically when the NHAI had proposed its construction few years ago", he told a channel.
Transportation to and from Shimla has been significantly affected, with the Shimla-Kalka-Chandigarh National Highway blocked at Chakki Morh due to continuous landslides. This disruption has impacted the supply of essentials to various areas including Solan, Shimla, Rampur, Theog, Rohru, Chopal, Jubbal, and Kotkhai.
More than 450 roads remained blocked and hundreds of areas remained without water and electivity in Himachal.
This situation prompted residents to stay indoors throughout Sunday, as offices and institutions remained closed due to the holiday.
All the schools and colleges will remain closed on August 14 in view of the heavy rains.
In Shimla, Deputy Commissioner Shimla, Aditya Negi In anticipation of further rainfall and threats posed by it, schools in both urban and rural areas of Shimla have been ordered to remain closed on August 14th.
Within Shimla's capital city, the impact of the ongoing rainfall has resulted in the uprooting of more than two dozen large deodar trees in locations including Khalini Forest Colony, Vikasnagar, Tutti Kandi, and Himland.
People were evacuated from two buildings near Himland after the landslide. Trees fell on the Police Barracks at Tutti Kandi, but everybody escaped unhurt.
