Check weather, road conditions before venturing to Himachal hills

Shimla: Tourist rush to picturesque landscapes in Himachal Pradesh amidst the onset of monsoon that has triggered frequent landslips and turned roads slippery can bring the picnic trips to a halt in a fraction of a second -- literally.

The result: Long traffic gridlocks adding to the problem of the commuters. So what to do?For your journey to the hills not to run into rough weather, one should double check local weather and road conditions as chances of snapping of road links are high during the monsoon, a government official told IANS on Tuesday.

Most of the prominent tourist towns like Shimla, Narkanda, Kufri, Chail, Kasauli, Chamba, Dharamsala, Palampur and Manali have been witnessing moderate to heavy spells of rain for almost a week.

Even the water level in the state’s major rivers -- the Satluj, Beas and Yamuna -- which enter the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana -- has been abnormally high, said the official.

After over 20 hours of closure, the Chandigarh-Manali national highway, one of the most landslide-prone roads, was reopened partially on Monday evening with the clearing of landslides on multiple locations between Manali and Kullu towns.

Hundreds of tourists travelling towards Kullu-Manali were inconvenienced. Most of the motorists had to spend a night in vehicles.

“It took over 24 hours to cover the distance between Kullu and Mandi first due to closure of the road link and then due to traffic mismanagement and slippery road conditions,” Ajay Dubey, a tourist from Delhi, told IANS.

As a precaution in the wake of intermittent rains, the state Tourism Department has issued an advisory.