BRO reopens strategic Manali-Leh national highway, traffic to resume soon

Kullu: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) on Tuesday officially reopened the strategically important Manali-Leh highway, that remained blocked for around five months due to heavy snow.The BRO started the snow-clearance operation on March 27, and finished it in 42 days. Braving avalanches and spells of snowfall in these 42 days, Project Deepak of the BRO cleared the highway from Manali to Sarchu and Project Himank from Leh to Sarchu. A BRO official said that the civilian traffic would be allowed on the highway in the coming days after trial runs. He said that this year, the major challenge during the road clearance operation was snow spells that continued even in April and the threat of avalanches.The 428-km-long Manali-Leh highway was officially closed for traffic on Nov 20 last year. Meanwhile, light rainfall was recorded in isolated areas of low and mid hills and snowfall was recorded in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday.The high-altitude areas of Lahaul Spiti, including Darcha, Sarchu and Shinkula, received light snowfall on Tuesday afternoon. According to the Meteorological Centre, Shimla, the state has so far this month, between May 1 and 12, recorded an average 35.5 mm rain, which is 34% higher than the normal of 26.5 mm. MSID:: 131041097 413 |