With Rohtang pass officially opened for vehicular traffic on Tuesday after a gap of five months, 52 vehicles carrying 293 people crossed over to Lahaul valley from Kullu. All the passengers were farmers who wanted to reach home for farming activities. With the first batch of vehicles entering the valley, Lahaul, which was cut off from rest of the country since mid-November, has reconnected by road. Hundreds of farmers who have stuck in Kullu and other parts of the state have been permitted to enter Lahaul-Spiti district where sowing season has started. Before this, 98 farmers had entered the valley on Saturday after walking for 3km across the Rohtang as snow clearing work on this stretch was continuing. The people are undergoing medical check-up before and after traversing Rohtang pass. Five farmers, who were found medically unfit, were sent back to Kullu on Saturday. The labourers and non-residents are not being allowed to enter the valley. The vehicles from Kullu were allowed to go till Rohtang pass from where passengers were shifted to other vehicles that came from Lahaul. The Young Drukpa Association (YDA) of Lahaul is sanitizing all the vehicles at Koksar that are bringing passengers from Rohtang pass. The association president Sonam Jangpo said they don’t want to take any risk. “Kullu is safe zone with no Covid-19 case so far. Still, we can’t take it lightly. All the vehicles entering the valley with passengers from Kullu are being sanitized at Koksar, the first village of the valley.” According to officials, an incident of the avalanche was reported between Rahni nullah and Marhi on Tuesday and it took over one hour to clear the debris. The freshly opened road with high walls of snow on both sides is still dangerous for vehicular movement. The Border Roads Organization (BRO) has stationed its machinery at Rohtang to deal with any situation. BRO has to keep clearing
With Rohtang pass officially opened for vehicular traffic on Tuesday after a gap of five months, 52 vehicles carrying 293 people crossed over to Lahaul valley from Kullu. All the passengers were farmers who wanted to reach home for farming activities. With the first batch of vehicles entering the valley, Lahaul, which was cut off from rest of the
After remaining blocked for over five months, Manali-Rohtang Pass-Keylong highway has finally opened for vehicular movement as Border Roads Organization (BRO) on Sunday morning cleared snow from north face of Rohtang at 4am. Working under pressure to connect Lahaul valley by road before election on May 19, BRO jawans had to work over 12 hours a day under extreme weather conditions. This season the entire area has received extremely heavy snow, more than last many years. Earlier it was assumed that road will not open before May 25 as BRO on Friday had to cut through 20 to 30ft high mountains of snow in 5km stretch. Last year traffic on Manali-Keylong highway was resumed on April 5 while it opened on April 28 in 2017. A BRO official said Rohtang pass and nearby areas are still getting snow, which largely affected their work this season. “The Manali-Keylong road was opened at 4am today. We worked all night to achieve this deadline as people of Lahaul wanted to go to cast poll. We had to search the road under 10 to 50ft deep snow. A large number of avalanches have hit the highway. Our primary goal was to connect Lahaul valley and provide relief to the residents. Now we shall focus on clearing snow from Keylong-Sarchu stretch. Our machines and jawans are advancing towards 16,050ft high Baralacha pass as well,” he said. “BRO officials had informed on Saturday morning that their two teams advancing towards 13,050ft high Rohtang from Manali and Lahaul sides will meet between Rohtang and Koksar tonight at any cost. Today morning at 4am they connected Manali with Lahaul. Some vehicles went to Lahaul via Rohtang pass on Sunday,” Manali sub-divisional magistrate Ashwani Kumar said. Ashwani added that road will not be opened for general traffic movement for
After remaining blocked for over five months, Manali-Rohtang Pass-Keylong highway has finally opened for vehicular movement as Border Roads Organization (BRO) on Sunday morning cleared snow from north face of Rohtang at 4am. Working under pressure to connect Lahaul valley by road before election on May 19, BRO jawans had to work over 12 hours