India News | Heavy Overnight Rain Wreaks Havoc in U'khand
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. A woman was buried in a landslide in Pithoragarh district after heavy overnight rains wreaked havoc in Uttarakhand on Friday, damaging several roads, two highways and a bridge, leading to suspension of traffic along the affected stretches.
Dehradun, Aug 27 (PTI) A woman was buried in a landslide in Pithoragarh district after heavy overnight rains wreaked havoc in Uttarakhand on Friday, damaging several roads, two highways and a bridge, leading to suspension of traffic along the affected stretches.
Pashupati Devi, 23, was buried in a massive landslide that occurred near her home in Joshi village in Dharchula sub-division of Pithoragarh district late on Thursday night.
Dharchula SDM AK Shukla said a State Disaster Response Team is still scouring the debris to find her but the chances of the woman's survival are low as it has been more than 12 hours since was buried under the debris falling from the hillside.
Heavy overnight rains damaged large portions of the Rishikesh-Gangotri and Rishikesh-Badrinath national highways causing complete suspension of traffic along the affected stretches for public safety, an official said.
The Rishikesh-Gangotri highway (NH-94) was closed for traffic from Narendra Nagar to Chamba while the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway (NH-58) was closed from Tapovan to Maletha, Tehri District Magistrate Eva Ashish Shrivastava said.
Traffic will remain completely suspended along these stretches of the two highways until they are fully repaired, she said.
A large portion of NH-94 caved in near Fakot in Tehri district, while landslide debris falling from the hillside blocked the road at a number of places. Cracks also appeared on the stretch raising fears about further damage.
The Rishikesh-Gangotri highway is blocked by huge boulders and rocks at a number of places, including Bagad Dhar and Hindolakhal, while a large portion of it has been washed out around Bemunda and Soni villages near Fakot, the district magistrate said.
Landslide debris has also blocked the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway at several points, she said.
Part of a bridge on Jakhan river in Ranipokhri was also washed away as a result of heavy overnight rains, cutting off Rishikesh from several districts whose borders it touches, Dehradun District Magistrate R Rajesh Kumar said.
The road to Tehri was breached at Agrakhal and portions of Sahastradhara-Maldevta road in Dehradun were also damaged in the rains.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Raipur MLA Umesh Sharma Kau visited the area on Friday morning for an on-the-spot assessment of the damage and asked the district magistrate to repair the road at the earliest.
Heavy rains have lashed various parts of Uttarakhand over the past few days.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)