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Ravinder Sood
Palampur, August 13
It has been raining for the past 48 hours in Palampur. Normal life has been paralysed, with almost all roads blocked and power/water supply adversely hit in many parts. All rivers, rivulets and streams are in spate.
Public property, roads, water supply schemes and irrigation channels have suffered extensive damage. Besides, many parts of the region are without power as the transmission lines have been snapped.
Traffic jams were witnessed on the Palampur-Dharmsala, Palampur-Hamirpur, Baijnath-Multhan, Palampur-Kandi roads. Commuters were stuck for more than eight hours due to landslides at different places.
The worst-affected highway — Palampur-Hamirpur — saw over one dozen landslides at different spots. Besides, retaining walls of bridges have also been washed away. Vikas Sood, Executive Engineer, PWD, Palampur division, told The Tribune that the loss was Rs 500 crore as over three dozen small and major roads had suffered damage. Many culverts had either been washed away or left in bad shape.
He said his field staff was working round the clock to restore traffic on the Palampur-Hamirpur road. The situation is no better in Baijnath and Jaisinghpur, where retaining walls have developed cracks and many culverts washed away.
Palampur and its satellite areas remained without power supply for 15 hours following heavy damage to transmission conductors near Maranda. Om Parkash Sharma, Executive Engineer, HPSEBL, said the power supply had been restored in 90 per cent areas.
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