Tag: tourist vehicles stranded at atal tunnel

Over 300 tourists stranded without meal following unexpected snowfall at the south portal of Atal tunnel were rescued in an operation that continued till 1 am on Saturday. All were rescued to safety after struggles of over 6 six hours amid snowfall. While some vehicles were freed from snow in the night time, other vehicles were evacuated on Sunday. The Atal tunnel has been closed for tourist movement due to inclement weather conditions and heavy snowfall in the area. Tourist movement is now being restricted to Palchan village only. As many as 250 tourist vehicles had reached the Atal tunnel on Saturday early morning. All vehicles were sent back by Lahaul-Spiti police as it was snowing heavily in the valley. Tourists then stopped at the south portal of the tunnel and Dhundi to enjoy snowfall. As snowfall intensified, Kullu police stopped tourist movement towards the tunnel. While some tourists returned back to Manali, others stayed there for a longer time. With the increasing depth of snow on the road surface, the vehicles started slipping. A large number of vehicles collided with each other. Drivers were finding it difficult to keep cars on road which were slipping outwards towards the edge. This resulted in a road blockade. This took a long time for tourists to understand how to deal with the situation but it was too late till then as over 15cm of snow had accumulated on the road. After receiving information about tourists getting stranded at the tunnel, a police team from Kullu with help of police units at Atal tunnel launched the rescue operation. Border Roads Organisation (BRO) started clearing snow from the road and police took help from 4X4 vehicle operators of Manali. Tourist vehicles were freed and brought down one by one. More than 300 tourists in