Rains cause Rs 200 crore losses in Himachal

Two persons were swept away by the swollen waters of Chakki Khad River in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday night due to heavy rains which even triggered landslides, damaged roads and buildings besides washing away large tracts of cultivated land.

A cloudburst in village Sadma in Kangra district damaged over dozen houses, washed away cowsheds and damaged a primary school building in village Lunj.

The rains caused landslides and damaged some buildings including some government ones which developed cracks but major highways remained open.

While the actual loss was being calculated, the Revenue department has put the loss to buildings and road at above Rs 200 crore.

The Chamba-Pathabkot Highway remained closed for nearly ten hours and a large number of vehicles remained stranded en route.The blockade was cleared on Sunday and vehicular traffic movement was restored.

However, the link roads in interior areas of Chamba including Tissa, Bharmaur and other places were blocked causing inconvenience to people, especially the Mani Mahesh pilgrims.
The state capital Shimla received 31 mm of rains till 8.30 AM leading to a drop in temperature while Amb in Una district was wettest in the state with 66 mm of rains. Kasauli, Una and Mandi had 51 mm, 50 mm, 49 mm of rains during the past 24 hours.

The minimum temperatures dropped by two to three degrees and Kalpa, Keylong and Manali recorded a low of 12.0 degree, 12.3 degree and 12.8 degree while Shimla recorded minimum temperature at 15.4 degree, followed by Nahan 18.3 degree, three degree below normal.