Pre monsoon shower cause landslide on Badrinath highway; traffic halted for 8 hours

The Badrinath highway which was closed after heavy rain and landslides around midnight, opened on Tuesday morning, an official said.

Landslides triggered on Monday night at Lambagad left the highway blocked with rocks for almost eight hours. The annual ‘Chaar Dham’ pilgrimage at the other three places – Yamunotri, Gangotri and Kedarnath though were running smoothly, he added.

Water-logging was reported in many places, including the low lying areas here. Power outages have also been reported. On Monday,  Uttarakhand capital received more than 177 mm of rain in less than three hours, leading to many civic woes, the official said.

Due to the storm and torrential rains, people had to face difficulties like waterlogging and electricity loss. At the same time, after 12 o’clock in the night, the Badrinath highway was closed due to landslides in Lambbad. As a result, the passengers had to wait for the road to open on either side of the road. At around 8:30 in the morning, traffic was removed smoothly by removing debris from the route.

Meteorological director Vikram Singh said that there is torrential rain before monsoon arrives. There is no unusual thing in it. For the next two-three days the order of the rain will continue. It is expected that the monsoon will knock in the next three to four days.