Kiratpur-Manali Highway blocked due to major landslide

The Kiratpur-Manali National Highway was on Monday blocked due to a massive landslide near Hanogi in Mandi district of Himachal, about 180 km from here. The vehicular traffic on the road came to a halt and hundreds of vehicles were stranded on either side of the blockades. The district administration diverted the traffic via Bajaura-Kotla road. “Huge boulders suddenly started rolling down and within minutes the entire hill-lock came down sliding but fortunately no vehicle was crossing the road at that point of time and as such there was no loss of human life,” said state Public Works Department (PWD)officials. The cause of landslide could not be ascertained as there were neither rains nor any hill cutting activity on the road and a technical team is visiting the spot to know the exact cause of the landslide.