216 roads closed after fresh snowfall in higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh

The higher reaches of Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur and Shimla districts experienced another spell of snowfall on Saturday while light rains lashed mid and low hills.

As many as 216 roads including three national highways have been blocked due to snow. A maximum of 119 roads are closed in Lahaul and Spiti, 31 in Kinnaur, 19 in Chamba, nine in Kullu, six in Mandi, two in Kangra and one in Shimla district.

According to the meteorological (MeT) department, Kothi received 20 cm of snow, followed by Kalpa 17 cm, Gondla 13.5 cm, Kukumseri 5 cm while Kufri in the suburbs of state capital Shimla received traces of snow.

About 325 transformers and 10 water schemes were disrupted in the state as per the state emergency operation centre. Shimla town witnessed hail storm.

The district administration of Lahaul and Spiti has advised the tourists and residents to avoid unnecessary travel in case of snowfall and informed that Manali-Leh National Highway (NH-03) has been blocked due to avalanches.

Darcha-Shinkula road, Kaza road (NH-505), Graphu to Kaza road and Sumdo to Losar road are also closed for all types of vehicles.

The Pangi-Killar state highway (SH-26) was also closed following an avalanche near Tindi.

Light to moderate rains lashed several parts of the state and Manali with 23 mm of rains was the wettest followed by Seobagh 17 mm, Bhuntar 15 mm, Reckong Peo and Sarahan 13 mm each, Chamba 10 mm while Shimla, Palampur, Nahan, Solan, Dalhousie, Dhaulakaun and Jubberhatti received 1 to 2 mm of rains.

Intense cold wave conditions continued to prevail in most parts of the state. The local MeT station has predicted dry weather from Sunday onwards.

There was no significant change in the minimum temperatures and Keylong was the coldest at night recording a low of minus 4.7 degrees C.