Title - Rain disrupts rail, road and air traffic in Himachal Pradesh - The Times of India

SHIMLA: Hundreds of people, including a large number of foreign tourists, were stranded near Kaza in Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh as heavy rain triggered a landslide and breached a road on Saturday night, reports reaching here said on Monday. Elsewhere in the state, damages were reported with several roads blocked due to landslides or being washed away by surging streams and rivers.

Meanwhile, two buildings - one under construction and other 11 years old - collapsed in Totu suburb of Shimla on Sunday night. The downpour also washed away a developed plot in the vicinity. The calamity has left four families homeless even though there was no casualty as the inmates had vacated the buildings when the hill started sliding.

Air and train services also remained disrupted for the second day on Monday. The Jammu-Pathankot train was terminated at Guler as the tracks between Guler and Jogindernagar was blocked due to landslides. "There have been major landslides at Koparlahd, where a portion of the hill has come down on the track," a railway official said.

Kangra airport, which has two flights daily between Kangra and Delhi, has seen no traffic for two days. "It is not possible to make flights land as a runway that is totally invisible due to heavy rains," said an airport official. The meterological office has issued a warning forecast that heavy to very heavy rain was likely to be experienced in the region over the next 48 hours.

Rock fall or landslides have affected more than 60 road routes. National highway connecting Dharamshala-Chandigarh was blocked near Kangra after landslides on Sunday night. The public works department has assessed the losses on link roads and state highways to the tune of about Rs 2 crores. Loss estimates of overall region including Nurpur, Palampur and Dehra are yet to be calculated.

Landslides on Kangra-Chamba road halted the Manimhesh pilgrimage as the road from Kangra-Draman-Sihunta-Chamba remained blocked for about eight hours. Incessant rains also disrupted the mobile services, particularly BSNL, in Chamba district.

The maximum temperatures dropped by two to three degrees while minimum temperatures dropped by a few notches in mid and higher hills following rains. Dharamsala and Gaggal in Kangra district received the maximum 182 mm and 180 mm of rains respectively. Neri and Sujanpur Tihra recorded 121 mm and 111 mm of rains, followed by Kasauli 80 mm, Hamirpur 76 mm, Sundernagar 50 mm, Jubbarhatti 49 mm, Shimla 44 mm, Bilaspur 41 mm and Mandi 30 mm.