Over 200 roads blocked, schools shut as heavy rains trigger landslides in Himachal

 Shimla: Heavy overnight rains triggered landslides in Himachal Pradesh, blocking over 200 more roads, including the Shimla-Chandigarh highway, and damaging some houses in Solan district, officials said on Wednesday.

No loss of life has been reported so far. With 200 more roads blocked, a total of 530 roads in the state are now shut. The Shimla-Kalka National Highway 5 connecting Shimla and Chandigarh was again blocked near Chaki Mor besides NH 21 (Mandi-Kullu road) and NH 154 (Mandi-Pathankot) road, according to the data of the State Emergency Operation Centre.

Some houses have been damaged in Shakal village in the outskirts of Solan city as gushing waters entered houses and reports of damage to few houses and vehicles in Sabathu area following the landslide have poured in, Deputy Commissioner, Solan, Manmohan Sharma told PTI.

As a safety measure, three houses were vacated in Panthaghati and Sanjauli areas of Shimla city and landslides and uprooting of trees have been reported in some parts of the city, Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, Aditya Negi said.

Heavy rains lashed several parts of the state, with Bilaspur receiving 181 mm of rains since Tuesday evening followed by Berthin 160 mm, Shimla 132 mm, Mandi 118 mm, Sundernagar 105 mm, Palampur 91 mm, Solan 77 mm. Heavy rains are still continuing in several districts.

The meteorological office here had issued a red alert predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated spells of "extremely heavy" rains in eight districts on Tuesday night.

The warning was issued for parts of Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur and Una districts following which all schools and colleges have been closed for two days beginning Wednesday in Shimla, Mandi and Solan districts.

The MeT also cautioned of moderate to high flash flood risk in Shimla, Sirmaur, Kangra, Chamba, Mandi, Hamirpur, Solan, Bilaspur and Kullu districts.

The weather office also issued an orange alert warning of "heavy to very heavy rains" on Wednesday and Thursday, and a yellow warning of heavy rain on August 25 and 26.It has predicted a wet spell in the state till August 28.

The seasonal rainfall was 752.1 mm against a normal rainfall of 550.4 mm, an excess of 36 per cent from June 24 till August 22.

Earlier this month, about 80 people died in rain-related incidents, including in a major landslides in Shimla.

A total of 227 people have died in rain-related disasters in Himachal while 38 are still missing since the onset of monsoon on June 24. Over 12,000 houses have been completely or partially damaged, according to the state emergency operation centre.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has claimed that the state has suffered losses of Rs 10,000 crore in the heavy rains.