21.1.13

Himachal snowed in


Heavy snowfall in Himachal Pradesh has left 10,000 vehicles stranded across the state as most roads, including some national highways and around 185 other stretches, were closed.
Tourists heading for Manali to enjoy the snow were forced to walk from Patlikuhl, some 20 km before Manali, as the Kullu-Manali highway is still closed. Manali, meanwhile, shivered at -6.2°C, the lowest of the season.
Till Sunday evening, workers were still trying to clear the snow from roads in Shimla, Manali and Dalhousie. With blocked roads bringing traffic to a standstill, people were facing shortage of essential commodities in many places. Meanwhile, three persons lost their lives in snow-related accidents. A woman and her son were killed in Pangi village of Kinnaur district after a snow-covered tree collapsed on their house while another person was swept away by an avalanche at a village in Killar tehsil of Chamba district on Saturday.
Vehicular traffic also could not be restored on the Hindustan-Tibet highway that links Shimla with the Spiti region.
The state capital saw the minimum temperature fall to zero degree, while the maximum was 8.8 degrees Celsius.
The state could get more snow in the next couple of days, the Met office said. Snapped power lines are yet to be restored fully after the current round of snowfall. In the snow-bound districts of Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur, Chamba, Kullu and Shimla, hundreds of villages are in darkness.

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