3,000 tourists stranded for 12 hrs near Manali in Himachal Pradesh on the new year eve

MANALI/SHIMLA: It was definitely not a good New Year's eve for around 3,000 tourists traveling in 400 cars to Manali to ring in 2011. They were left stranded for nearly 12 hours and remained confined in their vehicles at three places, only 10km before Manali, with heavy snowfall blocking the highway during the night at Rangri, Aluground and 18 Mile.
Also, the unusually heavy snow in the tribal belt of Kinnaur kept 90 tourists trapped at Kalpa, about 200km from Shimla, which till evening received about 5 feet of snow. All the tourists were from West Bengal, most of them from Kolkata.
An aged woman from Ghaziabad, Mrutani Kashyap, said her family did not have enough warm clothes and their car had no heater. "I thought we would freeze to death. This was the longest night I've ever spent," she said.
Many tourists arranged for some firewood and celebrated New Year in advance with loud music and dance.

The Delhi-Manali national highway was cleared for traffic by 2pm on Friday, but the sleet made it slippery and dangerous to drive on. Manali SDM Rajeshwar Goel said the highway has been restored up to Manali and all tourists were safe. SDO Naresh Thakur said from Peo over phone: "The road to Kalpa can only be opened after it stops snowing. With 3 feet of snow at Peo, it would take about a day or two to cut through the snow to reach Kalpa."


Courtsey News via Times of India by Suresh Sharma & Ravinder Makhaik,TNN, Jan 1, 2011, 02.48am IST

Tags:snowfall in Himachal,New Year's eve,Manali,Kinnaur,Himachal Pradesh