Monsoon rains continue to hamper Himachal; 108 roads remain blocked

Shimla: Persistent monsoon rains continued to disrupt normal life across Himachal Pradesh on Monday, with 108 roads remaining blocked due to landslides and debris even as restoration efforts helped improve power connectivity in several parts of the state.

According to the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC), 15 people have lost their lives in rain-related incidents across the state between June 30 and July 27. Landslides accounted for 14 fatalities, while one person died in a flash flood. Lahaul and Spiti district reported the highest number of casualties, with 13 deaths due to landslides, followed by one in Chamba. Kangra recorded the lone flash flood fatality. No deaths due to cloudbursts have been reported during the period.

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The latest SEOC status report issued at 6:00 pm on Monday said 108 roads remained closed across the state. While the number of blocked roads declined from 123 reported in the morning, it was slightly higher than the 106 road closures recorded on Sunday evening.

Mandi district continued to be the worst affected, with 39 roads blocked, including 30 in the Seraj division and seven in Thalout. Kullu district reported 33 road closures, with Banjar subdivision accounting for 18, followed by Nirmand (6), Kullu (5) and Anni (4). Chamba reported eight blocked roads, Shimla seven, Kangra five, Sirmaur four and Lahaul and Spiti three. All National Highways in the state remained open to traffic.

The continuing rainfall also affected essential public services. The number of disrupted water supply schemes increased to 38 by Monday evening from 31 in the morning and 18 on Sunday. Shimla was the worst affected with 11 disrupted schemes, followed by Hamirpur with seven, Bilaspur with four and Chamba with three.

Read more: Himachal Pradesh: 121 roads shut; heavy to very heavy rain predicted

Power supply, however, showed signs of improvement as restoration teams reduced the number of disrupted distribution transformers (DTRs) to nine by Monday evening, down from 31 earlier in the day and 45 on Sunday. Of the remaining outages, eight were reported from Shimla district.

Authorities said restoration teams and emergency personnel remain deployed across the affected districts to clear roads, restore essential services and monitor the evolving monsoon situation.