PIONEER NEWS SERVICE/ Pithoragarh
Rain-triggered landslides have blocked 12 roads spread across the district, including the Adi Kailash route, have been blocked, inconveniencing the tourists/pilgrims as well as the locals. Although traffic briefly resumed on Sunday afternoon, another landslide cut off Vyans, Darma and Chaudans valleys from the district headquarters. The roads remained blocked till Monday afternoon.
Notably, torrential rain has been battering the whole of the district since Saturday, disrupting normal life.
According to the Border Roads Organisation sources, a landslide had occurred near Dobat on Dharchula-Tawaghat-Gunji road on Sunday morning and its personnel had cleared the road of the blockage by afternoon, ensuring traffic movement resumption. But a few hours later, boulders rolled down the slope and crashed down onto the road at Tawaghat again. With the road remaining blocked, the locals and the tourists remained stranded. Efforts are presently on to clear the road, the BRO officials said, adding that the Adi Kailash route would reopen by late evening.
Meanwhile, frequent road closures in the rural areas of the district have been causing severe hardships for the rural people.
