Traffic crawls as landslides hit Chandigarh-Shimla NH

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 5

Traffic movement on the Chandigarh-Shimla highway was majorly affected after 3 am today following landslides near Jabli, Sanwara and Koti on the stretch between Parwanoo and Dharampur.

The landslides were triggered by incessant rains as strata and trees from the hills--excavated for four-laning work--gave way in the absence of adequate retaining walls. A major landslide was visible near Datiyar where a JCB machine was buried in the muck flowing down the hill.

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Solan Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohit Chawla said one-way traffic was restored around 4:30 am and it took another five hours to make it two-way. Around 60 police personnel, including two DSPs, four SHOs, an Additional SP and three PCR vans, were rushed to the spot to ensure speedier clearance of roads, he said.

“An urgent meeting of National Highways Authority of India officials and GR Infra Limited (the firm executing the road project) has been convened tomorrow to assess the situation and to step up preparedness for such exigencies,” he said.

With rain continuing throughout the day, the police had a tough time in ensuring smooth vehicular movement despite traffic being diverted through Bhojnagar-Kumarhatti and Jangeshu-Kasauli routes. As a few policemen were available to man traffic at Grakhal and Kumarhatti junction, long queues of vehicles piled up on the highway.

The chaos is learnt to have aggravated as the construction firm failed to respond promptly to clear the debris. A police official said the firm had been directed to place sufficient staff at vulnerable points.

A few commuters said the highway had become highly landslide-prone due to massive cutting of fragile hills and low retaining and breast walls, which were incapable of holding the strata.

Raising a question mark over the quality of work, a government official said the walls were a mere 1.5 m to 3 m high compared to those measuring up to 15 m in height on the Chandigarh-Parwanoo four-lane stretch.

Meanwhile, rail traffic on the Kalka-Shimla stretch also remained suspended due to landslides at three places between Koti and Sanwara.