Two persons were swept away by the swollen waters of Chakki Khad River in Himachal Pradesh where normal life was disrupted due to heavy rains which have triggered landslides, damaging roads and buildings besides washing away large tracts of cultivated land. Two persons, one belonging to Rajsthan, and a woman from Hariyal village in Kangra were swept away by swirling waters of swollen Chakki Khad last night while a cloudburst in village Sadma in Kangra district damaged over dozen houses, washed away cowsheds and damaged a primary school building in village Lunj.
The Chamba-Pathabkot Highway remained closed for nearly ten hours and a large number of vehicles remained stranded en route. The blockade was cleared today and vehicular traffic was restored. However, the link roads in interior areas of Chamba including Tissa, Bharmaur and other places were blocked causing inconvenience to people, especially the Mani Mahesh pilgrims.
Amb in Una district was wettest in the state with 66 mm of rains while Kasauli, Una, Mandi and Sundernagar had 51 mm, 50 mm, 49 mm of rains during the past 24 hours, followed by Gaggal 46 mm, Jubbar Hatti 43 mm, Dharmpur 35 mm, Chelsea 31 mm, Bangana 30 mm, Mashobra 27 mm , Seobagh 26 mm, Sangrah 25 mm, Solan and Manali 22, Nahan 21 mm, Dharmshala 19 mm, Bhuntar 17mm and Chamba and Bilaspur 16 mm. The state capital Shimla received 31 mm of rains till 8.30 AM leading to a drop in temperature.
The rains caused landslides and road breaches and some building including some government ones developed cracks but major highways were open. While the actual loss was being calculated, the Revenue department has put the loss to buildings and road at above Rs 200 crore. The local MeT office has predicted widespread rains in the region with very heavy rains at isolated palaces.
