Shimla:- A total of 53 roads were closed due to heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh and production in five power supply projects was halted. The State Emergency Operation Center (53) gave this information on Monday. The local Meteorological Center has issued a 'yellow' alert for fear of thunder and lightning in different areas of six districts of the state on Wednesday.
National Highway-5 (Hindustan-Tibet Road) connecting Chandigarh and Shimla was closed near Kumarahati in Solan district due to landslides in the afternoon, officials said. According to officials, no person or vehicle was crossing the road at the time of the landslide, so there was no loss of life in this incident. The highlands of Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti received light snowfall, marking the arrival of winter. Khushal, a resident of Madi in Kullu, said that the temperature has dropped after the snowfall.
According to Met department data, intermittent rain continued across the state with Bilaspur recording the highest rainfall of 100.8 mm since Sunday evening. Along with this, Kufri received 35 mm, Kasauli 28 mm, Neri 26.5 mm, Karsog and Gohar 24 mm, Baijnath 23.2 mm, Sundernagar 13.8 mm and Chamba 11.5 mm. According to SEOC, traffic remained blocked on 27 roads in Shimla, seven each in Mandi, Kangra and Kullu, three in Lahaul-Spiti and one each in Kinnaur and Sirmaur till Monday evening.
SEOC said that five schemes related to power supply have also been disrupted. Himachal has received 567.2 mm of rain since June 1 to September 15, which is 18 percent less than the average rainfall of 692.1 mm. According to officials, since the onset of monsoon on June 27 till Monday evening, 172 people have died in rain-related incidents in the state, while 30 people are still missing. He said that the state has suffered a loss of Rs 1,327 crore. Keylang in Lahaul-Spiti was the coldest place in the state with a minimum temperature of 6.8 degrees Celsius, while Una was the hottest place with a maximum temperature of 35.2 degrees Celsius, the Meteorological Department said.