Heavy rains lash Himachal, most rivers in spate

Heavy rains continued to lash various parts of Himachal Pradesh, disrupting normal life in lower and mid hills while most of the rivers are in spate due to sudden rise in water level due to rains in catchments areas.

Heavy rains triggered landslide in Tyori village in Mandi district near Pandoh, 15 km from district headquarters damaging half-a-dozen cowsheds and some buildings, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mandi Gopal Chand said.

"Half-a-dozen cattle sheds and government buildings were partially damaged. The link road to the village has been wiped out," he said.

Meanwhile, the Director of local MeT office Manmohan Singh said that heavy to very heavy rains are likely at isolated places in Shimla, Solan, Kullu, Sirmaur and Mandi districts during next 24 hours.

An alert has been sounded by district administrations of Mandi, Kangra, Una and Hamirpur, cautioning the people living along the banks of rivers to shift to safer places in view of threat of flash floods, an official spokesman said.

Due to sudden rise in discharge of water in the Ravi river, excess water was discharged by opening the gates as precautionary measure resulting in increase in water level of Bhakra and Pong Dams under BBMB which stood at 1,623.85 ft and 1,330 ft respectively.

The water level was 1,621.78 feet and 1,328.61 feet in Bhakra and Pong dams respectively Saturday but it increased due to heavy rains in catchment areas.

Meanwhile, heavy rains lashed parts of Kangra, Mandi, Sirmaur and Solan districts.

Dharamsala received 122 mm rains while Ghamroor and Sujanpur Tira had 108 and 103 mm rains. Pandoh 78 mm, Una 67 mm, Amb 61 mm, Paonta Sahib 47 mm, Bhoranj 44 mm, Jogindernagar 42 mm, Nadaun 41 mm, Gaggal 40 mm, Baijnath and Solan 37 mm, Hamirpur 34 mm, Sundernagar 30.3 mm, Shimla 27 mm, Nahan 25 mm, Kandaghat 23 mm, Nagrota Suriyan and Palampur 22 mm.

Mercury dropped by one to three degree across the state and Una was hottest during the day with a high of 31.8 deg C, followed by Sundernagar and Kangra 29.8 deg C and Bhuntar 28 deg C.