Kinnaur, July 3: The strategic National Highway-5 has reopened to traffic following a brief closure caused by flash floods and a cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district. Debris, large boulders, and slush swamped a 30-metre stretch of the border route near Cholling Middle School early Friday morning, temporarily trapping two light vehicles. Administrative teams acted swiftly to clear the path, ensuring no casualties occurred during the incident.
“A JCB machine was immediately deployed at Choling for restoration work, and the highway was reopened for traffic around 10am,” Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Amit Sharma affirmed. He added that flooding in the Ribba drain additionally blocked the Ribba-Kanda link road.
The disruption began around 4:00 AM following a cloudburst in the Nichar sub-division, which triggered a sudden surge in the Miru Nullah. While local infrastructure faced immediate pressure, emergency services managed to extract all vehicle occupants safely from the muck.
Kinnaur Superintendent of Police Sushil Kumar stated that police and administrative teams are coordinating relief and traffic regulation on the ground. “We appeal to residents, commuters, and tourists to avoid unnecessary travel, stay away from rivers and nullahs, and strictly follow official advisories,” Kumar maintained.
The state continues to manage the broader impact of the monsoon, with sixty roads currently blocked statewide according to the latest morning report from the State Emergency Operation Centre. Regional administration teams are monitoring various sectors, including the strategic Atal Tunnel Rohtang route in Lahaul and Spiti, which was closed to traffic at Yurnath due to adverse weather.
Infrastructure restoration remains a priority as utility networks feel the impact of the heavy downpour. Forty-eight distribution transformer regions face damage across the state, primarily concentrated in Mandi district, while twenty-seven water supply schemes have experienced disruptions, with Chamba district sustaining the bulk of the impact to water infrastructure.
