CHANDIGARH: More than 2,000 vehicles have been stranded due to a massive landslide near Marhi at Chumbak mod on the Manali-Leh National Highway. The landslide took place on Thursday night due to heavy rains over the last 24 hours and since then the traffic has been blocked some 30 kilometres from Manali. But the district administration came to know about it on Friday morning only after the rs informed the authorities.
Long queues of vehicles were seen on both sides of the highway thus the local police was deployed to monitor the traffic situation. Another part of the Manali-Leh highway was also blocked at Sarchu as portions of the damaged road was washed away as earlier boulders fell on the road thus badly damaging the road. Avril Jain of Border Roads Organisation (BRO) said that the road would be clear soon.
"The road clearing operation is in progress and it would be cleared soon and then the traffic will be restored. As heavy machines have been deputed along with the BRO engineering team to clear off the boulders. But with huge rocks constantly rolling down the hills thus it has become a difficult task," he said.
Manali Deputy Superintendent of Police Sher Singh said, "Mostly tourist and military vehicles are stranded on the road and the Border Roads Organisation has informed us that it would take another few hours to clear the road for traffic.'' This picturesque hill resort is witnessing a heavy rush of tourists this season and their has been heavy rains for past 24 hours.