In this page, we shall keep you updated about the Manali-Rohtang pass road status. (If this page is not loading properly in your browser, click on the above image) 20 February 2024: The Manali-Rohtang pass road is closed following winter snowfall. As more snowfall is occuring, there are no chances of opening of the highway anytime soon. The road is expected to reopen for tourists in May. 31 January 2024: Following heavy snowfall, ranging from 5cm to 90cm, from Manali to Rohtang pass, the vehicular traffic on the Manali-Rohtang pass highway has completely come to a standstill. The region is expected to receive more snow in the first week of February. The highway will reopen in late April or May. 01 January 2024: Manali-Rohtang pass highway is closed for vehicular movement. The road is expected to reopen in April or May after snow clearance by Border Roads Organisation. 16 October 2023: Manali-Rohtang road has become slippery beyond Gulaba after fresh snowfall on Monday. The vehicles were going only upto Marhi in the day time while traffic movement was being stopped at Gulaba in the evening for safety reasons. The road to Rohtang pass will reopen immediately after weather conditions improve. 13 June 2023: The Manali-Rohtang pass toad opened today for all kinds of vehicles. Rohtang pass with thick blanket of snow is now open for tourists. 30 May 2023: Rohtang pass is still closed for tourists. The Manali-Rohtang road will be thrown open for vehicular traffic very soon. 25 May 2023: Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is clearing snow from Rohtang pass. The tourist can go upto Marhi, 17km before Rohtang pass. The Koksar-Rohtang highway is also blocked with snow while more snowfall is occurring frequently. Rohtang pass is expected to be opened for tourists by June first week. 15 May 2023:
In this page, we shall keep you updated about the Manali-Rohtang pass road status. (If this page is not loading properly in your browser, click on the above image) 20 February 2024: The Manali-Rohtang pass road is closed following winter snowfall. As more snowfall is occuring, there are no chances of opening of the highway anytime
Marhi, Rahla fall, Gulaba and many other places along Manali-Rohtang highway, which were closed for all kinds of vehicles in November following snowfall, have been reopened for tourists as snow has melted under the prevailing dry weather conditions. There is no snow in the lower areas near Manali. Hoteliers and taxi operators were demanding to reopen Rohtang pass during peak tourist season these days. Although travel to Rohtang is not safe, Kullu administration has ordered to reopen the highway upto Marhi, just below Rohtang pass from Wednesday onwards. Issuing orders, Kullu deputy commissioner Ashutosh Garg said the Manali-Rohtang highway was closed beyond Kothi on the recommendation of Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and SDM Manali on November 21. “Manali SDM, DSP and BRO officials on December 21 had conducted a recce of the highway upto Marhi and found it suitable for general movement. The road was slippery at some places due to icing which has been cleared by BRO. The BRO has also agreed to help in traffic movement on the road until next snowfall,” he said. The DC said tourists and local taxi operators will have to adhere to some strict guidelines to be able to travel on this road. He said only four-wheel-drive vehicles will be allowed beyond Kothi between 10am and 4pm while other vehicles will be allowed after 12pm to 4pm. “The SDM and DSP at Manali will have the authority to suspend the traffic movement anytime after consultation with BRO to ensure public safety.” Tourists can see some snow in some shady areas near Beas nullah. Northern part of Rohtang pass has enough snow but administration will not allow vehicles to move beyond Marhi due to icing of the road. Also, in case of sudden snowfall, evacuation from Rohtang pass becomes very difficult. December month has
Marhi, Rahla fall, Gulaba and many other places along Manali-Rohtang highway, which were closed for all kinds of vehicles in November following snowfall, have been reopened for tourists as snow has melted under the prevailing dry weather conditions. There is no snow in the lower areas near Manali. Hoteliers and taxi operators were demanding to
Rohtang pass, country’s first tourist destination that had faced National Green Tribunal (NGT) wrath to prevent it from becoming crowdiest hill station, is no more tourists’ choice thanks to new tourist destinations Lahaul and Atal tunnel. Majority of tourists used to visit Himachal only to see Rohtang pass until last year. Now that Lahaul valley is easily accessible through Atal tunnel, Rohtang pass seems to have been forgotten by both tourists and state government. Tourists now visit the state with two major destinations in mind – Atal tunnel and Lahaul. Not just Rohtang pass, Marhi, Beas nullah, Gulaba, Kothi and other places on the way to this 13,050ft high mountain pass are no more in the wish list of the visitors. Although the road to Rohtang is blocked with snow, tourists are not taking any interest in visiting its lower areas including Gulaba, the famous picnic spot. “Very few tourists used to visit Manali and other parts of Himachal when road to Rohtang pass used to be closed. Now when Manali-Rohtang pass highway is closed, thousands of tourists are visiting this hill town only because of tunnel and Lahaul valley. Tourist crowd decreases suddenly if road to Atal tunnel and Lahaul is blocked after snowfall but it increases when road is open for tourists. Only a few tourists are enquiring about Rohtang pass,” a hotelier Rakesh Thakur said. After thousands of tourist vehicles were reaching Rohtang pass every day, NGT had to take a tough stand including restricting number of vehicles going to the pass for tourism purpose to 1,200 daily. The decision resulted in hues and cries among both local stakeholders and tourists. A private firm that will establish a ropeway to the pass had to face public protests, especially from local taxi operators, for last many years. As
Rohtang pass, country’s first tourist destination that had faced National Green Tribunal (NGT) wrath to prevent it from becoming crowdiest hill station, is no more tourists’ choice thanks to new tourist destinations Lahaul and Atal tunnel. Majority of tourists used to visit Himachal only to see Rohtang pass until last year. Now that Lahaul valley
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
Heavy snowfall in parts of Kullu-Manali, Lahaul-Spiti and Mandi districts left traffic interrupted in many major roads while nearly 200 tourists stranded near Manali on Thursday. Hundreds of tourists had reached Gulaba and Kothi to see snowfall on Thursday morning. As it was snowing fast, tourists were asked to descend down to Kothi. Ignoring warning, many tourists stayed below Gulaba. Some tourists walked along the highway towards Gulaba. Later vehicles started slipping on the road and they got stranded. After getting news about tourists getting stranded, local administration, police and rescue volunteers rushed to Gulaba to carry out relief operation. All tourists were brought back to Manali by late evening. Manali sub-divisional magistrate Raman Gharsangi said tourists were not allowed to go beyond Gulaba on Thursday but some tourists were reported to have stranded below Gulaba. “The road had become very slippery. The tourists were brought to safe place with help of police, taxi union and other volunteers. Situation is under control,” he said. Solang valley and Kothi near Manali have experienced season’s first snowfall. Both places have received nearly 10cm of snow. Entire Lahaul valley is also covered with a thin layer of white blanket. Jalori pass in Kullu district that connects Anni and Nirmand sub-divisions with the headquarters has also witnessed season’s first snowfall, blocking the highway. Manali-Rohtang-Keylong highway has again closed after heavy snowfall. Rohtang pass has received over 60cm of fresh snow. Over 75cm of snow on Baralacha pass has blocked Keylong-Sarchu road as well. Heavy snowfall on Kunzum pass has blocked Gramphoo-Kaza road. The high hills of Mandi district including Shikari hills have also received snow. The temperature in the state has dipped sharply after snowfall and rains. The minimum temperature of Keylong has dipped to minus 0.6 degree Celsius. Temperature of Manali (3.6), Shimla
Heavy snowfall in parts of Kullu-Manali, Lahaul-Spiti and Mandi districts left traffic interrupted in many major roads while nearly 200 tourists stranded near Manali on Thursday. Hundreds of tourists had reached Gulaba and Kothi to see snowfall on Thursday morning. As it was snowing fast, tourists were asked to descend down to Kothi. Ignoring warning,
As the administration is allowing tourist vehicles to ply the Manali-Rohtang highway in the daytime, hundreds of tourists have made a beeline to Rohtang pass to enjoy the fresh snow. Rohtang is covered with 10 to 20cm of powder snow which will last for few more weeks. Earlier this month administration had stopped tourist movement to Rohtang pass after some vehicles had stranded in snowfall. The Manali administration is now allowing tourist vehicles to go to snow point at Rohtang pass in day time. But the tourists need to leave Rohtang for Manali in the afternoon before icing of the road in the evening time. A large number of tourists are thronging Rohtang every day. “We were given a surprise in the form of fresh snow at Rohtang pass. This was one of the best surprises we ever received,” a tourist from West Bengal Deepak Ojha said. He added that they had booked the tour to Himachal a long back and had not expected to see snow in Manali in October. “We were surprised to see the whole area covered with white blanket. We had a lot of fun all the day.” Another tourist from Delhi, Amit Rathore, said he and his wife planned trip to Manali after hearing news about snowfall at Rohtang pass. “This is our second trip to Manali. Last time we could not see snow. We left Delhi for Manali on Sunday morning and visited Rohtang on Monday. It was an amazing experience. There were no traffic jam and no maddening crowd as we had faced last time,” he said. Most of tourists visiting Himachal these days are from West Bengal. The hoteliers, who complained about weak summer tourist season this year, are still complaining of lean season. Tourist inflow increased since Dussehra but hoteliers say
As the administration is allowing tourist vehicles to ply the Manali-Rohtang highway in the daytime, hundreds of tourists have made a beeline to Rohtang pass to enjoy the fresh snow. Rohtang is covered with 10 to 20cm of powder snow which will last for few more weeks. Earlier this month administration had stopped tourist movement
With aim to establish Himachal Pradesh as a model state for electric vehicle adoption and to provide sustainable, safe, eco-friendly, inclusive and integrated mobility, the state on Wednesday held a meeting regarding framing of the draft for Himachal Pradesh Electric Vehicle Policy – 2019. The meeting was held under chairmanship of chief secretary Dr Shrikant Baldi. He said the policy is targeted to achieve 100 per cent transition to electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030 in alignment with United Nation’s sustainable development goals and vision of government of India. He said main objective of the policy is to save environment, accelerate demand for EVs, promote sustainable transport system and to create public private charging infrastructure. “Policy is being framed to create a conductive atmosphere for shift from internal combustion engines to EVs. It will encourage use of hybrid electric vehicles by the government entities during transition period and will create new employment opportunities. The policy would promote the adoption of EV technology by way of providing fiscal and non fiscal incentives. It would promote creation of dedicated infrastructure for charging of EVs through various incentives as per standards notified for public charging infrastructure by Ministry of Power, government of India guidelines,” Baldi said. He added that a viable business model will be developed for private players to set up EV charging stations and infrastructure. The policy has provision to set up charging spots in commercial buildings like hotels and shopping malls. If vehicle is charged at domestic user facility, domestic rate of electricity would be charged across the state. “Non domestic, non commercial” rate would be applicable in public charging facility and commercial charging stations. The policy suggests that the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission shall be the final authority to determine the rat of electrical power to EV charging stations.
With aim to establish Himachal Pradesh as a model state for electric vehicle adoption and to provide sustainable, safe, eco-friendly, inclusive and integrated mobility, the state on Wednesday held a meeting regarding framing of the draft for Himachal Pradesh Electric Vehicle Policy – 2019. The meeting was held under chairmanship of chief secretary Dr Shrikant
With an aim to provide tourists with a unique and eco-friendly adventure sports experience, Himachal government has established a “sky cycling” park at an altitude of 9,300ft at Gulaba, just below Rohtang pass. Officials believe tourists will make a beeline to experience cycling at the park which is perhaps the world’s highest sky-cycling park at such an altitude. Tourists would be able to run the bicycle on 350m-long metal cable while getting a 360 degree view of Rohtang pass, snow-clad Dhauladhar, and Pir Panjal range and Beas river. To ensure maximum safety of the visitors, the activity is being developed under the supervision of Manali based Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS). The government is developing a “Prakriti Vatika” at Gulaba where forest department is spending lakhs of rupees. The vatika (garden) spread over a vast area has hundreds of trees of different species including pine, deodar, maple and Himalayan horse chestnut. Forest department is planting more species to make the garden unique and beautiful. The sky-cycling trek is being developed inside the prakriti vatika. ABVIMAS director Col Neeraj Rana on Thursday did a successful trial of sky cycling here along with the divisional forest officer Dr Neeraj Chadha. The cycling cable at some points is over 70f above the ground. Some local youth are being trained to operate this activity by the institute. The activity is expected to open for tourists by October. Officials said a 450m-long zip line, all-terrain vehicle (ATV) trek, kids play area, picnic area, walking trail, yoga and meditation area, a waterfall, shopping area, camping site, snow games, rappelling, toilets and many other activities are also being developed inside the prakriti vatika. While some activities will be operated in winter season during snowfall, others can be enjoyed in rest of the
With an aim to provide tourists with a unique and eco-friendly adventure sports experience, Himachal government has established a “sky cycling” park at an altitude of 9,300ft at Gulaba, just below Rohtang pass. Officials believe tourists will make a beeline to experience cycling at the park which is perhaps the world’s highest sky-cycling park at
The incessant rains in Kullu district have wreaked havoc as rivers are in flood, major roads and bridges are closed, people living close to rivers have started shifting to safe areas and landslides preventing people from going from one place to other. Both Manali-Rohtang-Leh and Manali-Chandigarh national highways are closed. A government school building at Palchan village has collapsed due to flood in Beas. A major bailey bridge at Akhara bazaar of Kullu that connects the Kullu town with left bank of Beas has been closed for traffic following Beas river damaged the approach road to the bridge.Two trucks and their drivers got stuck in the middle of the Beas at Patlikuhal near Manali after water level rose suddenly. Both, identified as Nand Kishor and Ravi, residents of Rajasthan, were rescued with the help of a rope and hydra crane.\n Traffic on Chandigarh-Manali national highway is stopped from Kullu and Mandi sides after a stretch of highway submerged near Duwada in Mandi district. While the buses and other heavy vehicles are stopped completely, light vehicles are being diverted to bypass road via Katola. A large number of buses, including tourist buses, are stopped at Bajaura. Police said the traffic will be resumed only after water level recedes and road becomes safe. The 38 Border Roads Task Force commander Col Uma Shankar said the Manali-Leh highway has also been blocked due to floods and landslides. “Massive landslides at Teling nullah and Pagal nullah in Lahaul have blocked the highway. We have cleared debris at Teling nullah but another slide has blocked it again. Machines are engaged to clear pagal nullah stretch. We have seen multiple landslides in 24 hours. We are working hard to resume traffic.” Chandigarh-Manali NH submerges near AutAll the water streams between Rohtang and Sarchu are in spate
The incessant rains in Kullu district have wreaked havoc as rivers are in flood, major roads and bridges are closed, people living close to rivers have started shifting to safe areas and landslides preventing people from going from one place to other. Both Manali-Rohtang-Leh and Manali-Chandigarh national highways are closed. A government school building at
The scientists will soon assess the tourism carrying capacity of hill stations of Himalayan regions of the country and will make a report on impact of tourism on local environment and livelihood. The scientists of GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development are doing a detailed study on carrying capacity of hill stations. A meeting was held at the regional centre of the institute at Kullu on Friday where scientists, officials from different departments and NGOs working in environment protection took part. Concerned for the balance between environment, development and growing tourism, the scientists and officials discussed on various environment related issues. “The burning issues like environmental balance and security of interests of local people are coming to light while developing tourism industry in the hill stations. It requires a large, long-term and holistic policy. This was the reason behind organizing this consultation meeting so that a practical policy could be framed with help from all the departments,” scientist from the institute RK Singh said. The hills stations of the country, especially in the hills stations, get crowded during summer season. The crowd not only leaves behind tonnes of trash but also put extra pressure on the available resources like water, roads and electricity. Increase in traffic leads to air and sound pollution. The vehicles leave the roads jammed for hours. No agency has so far studied the safe carrying capacity of hill stations. The scientists from the government institute will be studying it for the first time. Scientist Vaibhav Eknath Gosavi, Dr Lipika Sharma, Dr Abhay Sharma and Dr Shiv Pal described how environment related problems and conflicts between different sections are natural during growth of the tourism industry in mountainous regions. “The institute is studying deeply to prepare the guidelines for carrying capacity. Detailed discussion
The scientists will soon assess the tourism carrying capacity of hill stations of Himalayan regions of the country and will make a report on impact of tourism on local environment and livelihood. The scientists of GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development are doing a detailed study on carrying capacity of hill