Disaster management forces have succeeded in rescuing only 120 devotees out of around 250 who were stranded on the Rudraprayag-Madmaheshwar road in Uttarakhand when a bridge in Badtoli village was swept away in heavy rainfall and a flashflood on Tuesday night.
Jitendra Verma, sub-divisional magistrate of Ukhimath, was quoted by reporters as saying that the road on which the devotees walk on foot to reach Madmaheshwar, also known as Chhota Kedarnath, was destroyed and the bridge was swept away.
“There were about 250 devotees from different parts of the country who were going to the temple on foot but their journey was disrupted. They all were stranded near Badtoli village. The rescue teams of the National Disaster Management Force and the State Disaster Management Force have succeeded in rescuing 120 of them and taken them to safe places. The operation will continue till all of them are brought to safe places,” said Verma.
In the Helang area of Chamoli district’s Joshimath, 120km from Ukhimath, a multi-storey building collapsed on Tuesday night.
“At least two persons died and five might have been buried under the debris of the building. The rescue team has been working since the time of the incident,” said Harak Singh Rana, a police inspector at the Joshimath outpost.
“We will be able to clean the spot by tomorrow (Thursday),” Rana was quoted by local media as saying.
According to an estimate, Uttarakhand suffered a loss of assets worth Rs 650 crore this monsoon, when many roads and bridges were completely washed away or destroyed because of landslides or flashflood.
Ranjit Kumar Sinha, secretary of the state disaster management, said 52 people had died and 37 had suffered injuries so far in the state this monsoon.
“About 38.18 hectares of land was washed away and standing crops on 8,582 hectares were destroyed. There were 2,915 roads which were damaged because of landslides and 64 bridges were washed away,” said Sinha.
Eighteen state highways and 221 roads were closed.
