Five people who went missing after heavy rain triggered flash floods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi remained untraceable on Sunday, a senior official said.
Twenty-two people were killed and 12 injured in rain-related incidents on Saturday. The maximum damage was reported from Mandi, Kangra and Chamba districts. State disaster management department director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said the five people who went missing after a flash flood in Baghi nullah on the Mandi-Katola-Prashar road in Mandi were still untraceable.
Several families fled their homes located between Baghi and Old Katola after a cloudburst in the area on Saturday. Mokhta said the Shimla-Chandigarh highway, which was blocked on Saturday evening following a landslide at Sonu Bangla between Shoghi and Tara Devi, had been cleared for vehicular movement.
However, several roads, especially in Mandi, are still closed for traffic and work is on clear them, he added, he added. Principal secretary, revenue, Onkar Sharma said Rs 232.31 crore had been released from the State Disaster Response Fund to the affected districts. Sufficient funds are available with all districts to carry out the relief and rehabilitation work, he said. In Kangra, district magistrate Nipun Jindal ordered a magisterial inquiry into the cause of the collapse of a rail bridge over the Chakki river in Nurpur tehsil.
Women walk along the Ridge in Shimla as it rains on Sunday. PTI
The bridge collapsed on Saturday after two of its pillars were washed away in a flash flood, cutting off the narrow gauge train service between Pathankot and Joginder Nagar. Seven trains used to run on this narrow gauge rail line that was constructed and commissioned by the British government in 1928.
Ferozepur divisional railway manager Seema Sharma inspected the Chakki bridge on Sunday and said partial train service might be restored by next month on the damaged Joginder Nagar-Pathankot route. Sharma said trains might start plying between Paprola-Jassur and Jassur-Joginder Nagar from September.
