In 2024, when you will visit Kullu-Manali for a holiday trip, your car or bus will pass through nearly seven long tunnels. In this advancement, a 2.9km-long tunnel has been completed at Aut, about 60km from Manali, on Saturday. After completion of all the 14 tunnels between Kiratpur and Manali, travel time to Manali will decrease drastically. The journey will be extremely thrilling and safe as well. Every time you will come out of a dark tunnel, it will open up to a beautiful and different landscape. Currently, there is only one such motorable tunnel on Delhi-Chandigarh-Manali national highway at Aut. The length of the tunnel is about 2.8km. Meanwhile, 8.9km-long Rohtang tunnel on Manali-Leh highway is also expected to open for traffic by 2020. These tunnels will also cut short the distance. Once four-laning of the Kiratpur-Manali national highway is complete, travel time between Chandigarh and Manali will cut short from 10 hours to 7 hours. Similarly, it will take nearly 11 to 12 hours to travel from Delhi to Manali. The boring of 2.9km-long motorable tunnel, one of the 10 such tunnels being built by National Highway Authority of Indian (NHAI) between Aut and Pandoh in Mandi district of Himachal, completed on Saturday. The work has completed five months before the deadline by Afcons, the company that has been awarded the tunneling job last year. A total of 14 tunnels are proposed to be built to make Kiratpur-Kullu road a four-lane highway. One of the challenging tunnels, work on which had started in September last year, is ready for final finishing. The boring of the tunnel had started from both sides with New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM), the same method which was applied to build the Rohtang tunnel. The engineers from both ends met with each other in
In 2024, when you will visit Kullu-Manali for a holiday trip, your car or bus will pass through nearly seven long tunnels. In this advancement, a 2.9km-long tunnel has been completed at Aut, about 60km from Manali, on Saturday. After completion of all the 14 tunnels between Kiratpur and Manali, travel time to Manali will
As the general elections have ended, tourists who gave a miss to hill stations in May have started to make a beeline to Manali to get respite from the scorching heat of the plains. The elections have badly hit the summer tourism of Himachal as hoteliers claim they have never seen such a poor business in May month. With elections ended and hills of Manali still experiencing fresh snowfall, hoteliers believe they see a good tourist crowd till the end of June. The tourist footfall is increasing gradually but most of the tourists are ending up stuck in traffic jams for hours. The charm of snow along Manali-Rohtang road is attracting tourists to Manali. A number of tourist vehicles entering Manali is increasing every day. But the long traffic jams at multiple places between Bhuntar and Marhi are ruining their holiday mood. While a one-way bridge at Dobhi has become the worst bottleneck, NHAI has failed to stop sliding of a small stretch at 16 Mile where sometimes vehicles are forced to wait for 1 to 2 hours for their turn. The traffic is moving at snail’s pace on Bhuntar-Ramshila stretch of the highway where road construction is continuing. It has become a routine to face traffic jams from Manali to Marhi, the snow point of Manali. The hoteliers say May and June are the months when lakhs of tourists throng Manali and most hotels remain occupied. They rue that not just elections but it is poor infrastructure that is irking the tourists and putting a negative impact on the tourism industry. Manali Hoteliers’ Association president Anup Ram Thakur said the condition of the road from Kiratpur (Punjab) to Manali is not good which is affecting the tourism. “Unscientific construction of four-lane highway without conducting proper study of the area
As the general elections have ended, tourists who gave a miss to hill stations in May have started to make a beeline to Manali to get respite from the scorching heat of the plains. The elections have badly hit the summer tourism of Himachal as hoteliers claim they have never seen such a poor business
With incessant rain triggering landslides along Mandi-Manali national highway, Kullu administration has requested people to avoid driving during nighttime when its raining heavily. Another landslide at 16 Mile, 12km from Manali, had blocked the NH on Wednesday and Thursday. Four vehicles that were attempting to cross the stretch got stuck in boggy road on Wednesday and two vehicles stuck on Thursday morning. They remained stuck for hours until an excavator came for help. Although machines have been deployed here, landslides are blocking the road again and again. Sliding at Kalath, 15 Mile, Aluground and Rangari are posing threat to traffic. A dozen of vehicles have been hit by rolling boulders in recent days. This has affected the public transport on Kullu-Manali route as only a few buses are coming till Manali. Even some government buses are not coming till Manali, forcing people to travel in taxis. Manali-Rohtang road has also suffered severe damages due to landslides at many places. The whole mountain face is sliding down on the highway near Beas bailey bridge, making driving beyond Manali a nightmare. All low floor cars are colliding with the ground here. The entire Kullu district, especially Manali region, has received snow and rain for most of the days in both January and February. The earth has lost its water absorption capacity and has started to slide. Kullu deputy commissioner Yunus said the widening of the national highway is underway which is resulting in frequent landslides. “Driving becomes more risky in nighttime when slides and rolling boulders are not visible to the driver. We have advised people including tourists avoid driving in nighttime during rain and snowfall when chances of slides are maximum,” he said. मौसम के खराब रुख को देखते हुए कुल्लू जिला प्रशासन ने एक बार फिर अलर्ट जारी किया है।
With incessant rain triggering landslides along Mandi-Manali national highway, Kullu administration has requested people to avoid driving during nighttime when its raining heavily. Another landslide at 16 Mile, 12km from Manali, had blocked the NH on Wednesday and Thursday. Four vehicles that were attempting to cross the stretch got stuck in boggy road on Wednesday
MANALI: The snowfall and New Year crowd will bring less trouble to the tourists and local residents of Manali this season as authorities are gearing up to cope with the snowfall and its aftereffects. Blocking of the highway after every spell of snowfall is the main problem in Manali. For the first time, Manali will have a dedicated snow cutter machine to keep roads clear of snow. Till now, snow in Himachal is removal with help of JCB machines that are not designed to clear the snow. Being very expensive and of rare use, public works department has been hesitating in buying such machines. According to officials, the snow cutter will reach Manali in next few days and will remain under possession of local administration. There are nearly a dozen stretches on the national highway which are very steep and prevent vehicles from reaching Manali even after deposit of small amount of snow. Vehicles don’t get traction and start slipping on snow and ice. Most of such stretches have been flattened and widened. Vehicles can now easily reach Manali without much effort. However some stretches still need some work to make them worth driving in all season. Snowfall and tourist crowd bring Manali town to standstill. The entire highway inside town does not see sun for most time of the day and gets freeze after snowfall every winter season. This not only results in traffic jam but also causes many accidents. The national highway is now being diverted from town to outer portion and is being made a four-lane road on war footings. Administration has set a target of opening this new highway before New Year crowd hits the town. Transport minister Govind Singh Thakur said the new highway would be opened to release traffic burden from the town as
MANALI: The snowfall and New Year crowd will bring less trouble to the tourists and local residents of Manali this season as authorities are gearing up to cope with the snowfall and its aftereffects. Blocking of the highway after every spell of snowfall is the main problem in Manali. For the first time, Manali will
