Commuters on the busy Munnar-Theni interstate highway had a tough time on Friday morning as giant boulders came crashing down the hills blocking the highway on Friday morning.
The torrential downpour that has been pounding Munnar for the past four days triggered the first major mud slip of the season at Lockhart Gap located on the Munnar-Theni interstate highway on Friday morning.
The incident occurred near Bisonvalley at around 9.30 am on Friday.
As huge boulders and mud accumulated on the highway, traffic on the highway came to a grinding halt. A tragedy was averted as there was no vehicular traffic when the boulders came crashing down.
The public works department is trying to remove the boulders and heaps of mud with the help of the police, the fire and rescue force and the local residents. The district collector has banned traffic along Gap Road considering the threat of mudslides on the highway.
As per the order issued by the collector, traffic has been banned from Erachilpara in Devikulam taluk to Chemmannar Gap road in the Udumbanchola taluk, till further notice.
Though the onset of the Southwest monsoon brings days of landslides, death and devastation to the high ranges, Munnar did not witness any natural calamity during the past month as the monsoon was not active. However, the situation changed last week as heavy rain started pounding the hills.
Mudslips and landslides are not new for the residents of Munnar since the National Highway Authority (NHAI) started construction of the Gap road stretch on the Kochi – Dhanushkodi NH 85 in 2017.
There were three major landslips on the stretch on July 28 and October 8 in 2019 and June 19, 2020, causing large-scale damage in the area. In the first two landslips, vast areas of farmland downhill were destroyed.
The last landslip washed away nearly 200 metres of the road. While compensation has been provided for a few farmers for the damage caused to the farmlands, many are running from pillar to post for the solatium.
The local residents had staged a protest in front of the newly constructed toll plaza with the support of Congress and CPI on July 5 demanding immediate steps to release the compensation amount.
Devikulam sub-collector Renu Raj had submitted a report to the government informing that the unbridled quarrying of rock and unscientific construction were cited as the reasons for landslides on the Gap road.