After a brief lull, rains have returned to ravage the hill states, wreaking havoc in Himachal Pradesh, which is reeling under cloudbursts, landslides and floods. Heavy rainfall continued on Saturday morning, even as thousands of tourists are stranded in various parts of the state. A flash flood alert had been issued in Manali following the rains.
Due to the heavy rains, the falling of debris blocked the Yamunotri and Badrinath National Highway in Uttarakhand leaving the vehicles stuck on the roads.
VIDEO | Badrinath National Highway blocked due to rainfall-triggered landslides in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. pic.twitter.com/GzybDYvMS4
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 15, 2023
Hill states, particularly Himachal, had suffered massive destruction due to flashfloods and rains. As the ravaging Beas breached its banks, thousands of lives have been thrown out of normalcy, and livelihoods were wiped away.
HP Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu sought Rs 2,000 crore interim aid from the Centre.
“I spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and requested him for an interim relief of Rs 2,000 crore,” Sukhu said on Friday.
The state has suffered losses of Rs 4,000 crore and the figure is likely to go up as estimates continue to pour in, he said.
“The work is being done on a war footing...The people who are stuck in the Kasol Valley have been evacuated...The valley has suffered damage to a great extent and the chief minister has taken stock of the situation and we are working towards restoring the road leading to Kasol,” PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh was quoted by ANI.
Singh also added that the a detailed project report of around Rs 75 crores has been made so that a good budget is allocated for the maintenance and upgradation of the road. “We are working so that the road has an all-weather connectivity,” he said.
National Highway blocked
As the rain lashed the northwestern Himalayan region, the Yamunotri and Badrinath National Highway roads were yet again blocked on Saturday due to falling debris near Chami village in Pauri Tehsil of Garhwal District in Uttarakhand.
Badrinath National Highway was blocked near Pagal Nala, Pipaloti due to debris falling off at many places.
Alert issued in many states
Heavy to extremely heavy rainfall is likely to continue over north Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Madhya Pradesh, Northeast India, Sikkim and Uttarakhand during the next five days.
Alert has been issued for the entire Himalayan state except for Lahul and Spiti for Monday.
Red alert was issued for Uttarakhand on Sunday.
Isolated heavy rainfall is also very likely over HP during the next five days.
In the east and adjoining northeast India, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar is also likely to witness widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to heavy rainfall.
Isolated heavy rainfall is likely over Odisha during the next five days as well.
IMD has also warned of isolated heavy rainfall over Konkan, Goa and the Ghat areas of central Maharashtra during the next five days, over Gujarat during the next two days.
With several people stranded, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) continues in the flood-affected areas of Punjab, HP, Haryana, and Uttarakhand.
