New Delhi/Shimla/Uttarkashi, June 29: A cloudburst in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district early Sunday left two construction workers dead and seven missing as monsoon covered the entire country almost a week early than usual, bringing rain in national capital and other northern states and triggering landslides in several hilly areas.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for heavy rainfall on June 29 and 30 in various districts of Uttarakhand, including Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri, Haridwar and Nainital. Authorities have put the Chardham yatra on hold for a day for the safety of pilgrims.
A similar red alert of heavy to very heavy rain has been issued for 12 districts in Himachal Pradesh, where rain-related incidents have claimed 17 lives since the onset of monsoon in the state on June 20.
In Uttarakhand, a landslide triggered by a cloudburst destroyed the shelters of workers engaged in the construction of a hotel along the Yamunotri National Highway in Uttarkashi district, officials said.
There were 29 labourers at the campsite when the landslide occurred washing away around 10 metres of the highway. Twenty of them were evacuated to safety while nine went missing, the district emergency operation centre said.
Bodies of two missing labourers were recovered from the banks of the Yamuna River near Tiladi Shaheed Smarak, about 18 km from the place where the landslide occurred, police said.
The labourers are said to be of Nepalese origin.
NDRF, SDRF and police personnel are carrying out search and rescue operations at the site, District Magistrate Prashant Arya said.
The highway is blocked by landslide debris, he said, adding pilgrims returning from Yamunotri have been asked to stay at safe locations due to the blocked highway, he said.
The Chardham Yatra has been postponed for a day as a precautionary step and a decision on further travel will be taken after reviewing the weather conditions along the routes on Monday, Garhwal Commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said.
In Himachal Pradesh, services on the Shimla-Kalka rail line -- a UNESCO world heritage -- were suspended on Sunday after boulders and trees fell on the tracks following overnight rains in Solan district. A bridge in Solan's Barotiwala industrial area was also washed away.
A landslide near Koti on the Shimla-Kalka National Highway (NH-5), connecting Shimla and Chandigarh, damaged some stretches of the road, resulting in a two to three-km-long traffic jam for hours. (PTI)
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