Shimla:

Chandigarh- Manali highway has been restored to traffic via Pandoh Kainchi Mod in Mandi district after a gap of seven months.

This highway had damaged in the area in August last year due to rain disaster. Since then it was blocked to traffic movement between Mandi and Kullu via Pandoh Kainchi Mod. The traffic movement was allowed between Mandi and Kullu via alternative route, which connect the highway in Mandi.

The National Highway Authority of India completed the maintenance of this road and informed the district administration to allow traffic movement on it. As a result, today Deputy Commissioner Apoorv Devgan inspected the damaged road at Kainchi Mod near Pandoh and allowed one-way vehicular movement on it.

DC said that this road stretch of highway was damaged due to cloud burst and landslides  last year. Now, the construction work of the damaged road at Pandoh Kainchi Mod of the National Highway has almost been completed by the National Highway Authority of India on the basis of new technology.

“To keep the mountain stable, hydro-seeding system has been used by installing rock bolts, under which work has also been done to keep the environment clean and green by planting seeds to keep the slope of the mountain stable” he asserted.

He said that at present the road traffic till Kainchi Mod of Pandoh-Mandi has been restored today for one-way movement of vehicles in view of safety. After the completion of the drain work after a week, the traffic will be allowed to move from both the directions.

DC said that “at present an alternative route is being used to go from Mandi to Kullu, which was also repaired by the National Highway Authority of India. The Kainchi Mod route will be used to visit from Kullu to Mandi. After completion of the drain work after a week, the Kainchi Mod road will be restored for traffic movement on both sides.”

On this occasion, SDM, Mandi Sadar Om Kant Thakur, Project Director of National Highway Authority of India, Varun Chari, Manager Technical of National Highway Authority of India Ashok Kumar Jha, Deputy Manager Technical of National Highway Authority of India Digvrat Singh, Sites Engineer of National Highway Authority of India Amit Thakur were also present.