Damaged roads give sleepless nights to Kullu apple growers

MANALI: Landslides, damaged and narrow roads are giving sleepless nights to the apple growers in

Kullu

district, where transporting fruits to the market has become a headache. It is peak apple harvesting season and frequent blocking of roads is annoying growers. Hundreds of trucks are transporting apple from villages to markets which are choking the traffic

While link and district roads are getting blocked after heavy rains, many have been washed away by cloudbursts and floods. While landslides are grounding truckers, there are no labourers available for the transportation of harvest.

Kullu's main apple belt is on left bank of the Beas and the Kullu-Manali bypass road, which is in a dilapidated condition. The trucker are forced to run vehicles carrying apple on small narrow and

damaged roads

, endangering lives and causing traffic snarls.

Lalit Thakur, an apple grower from Sajla village of Kullu, said, "Dozens of large trucks are ferrying our fruits to Delhi, Punjab and local markets. The highway is very narrow at many places and trucks block the traffic for hours. Not only general public and tourists, but even fruit growers are a worried lot because of transportation issues. The road between Naggar and Sarsei is not worth plying vehicles on."

Chuni Lal, another grower from Bran village, said a recent cloudburst and then a landslide has blocked the road.

"It's peak apple harvesting season. Once the fruit is harvested, we want to take it to market as soon as possible to get better prices. The road is already in a poor state and now rain is against us. Fortunately, we have been getting rain during night time for the last few days, which gives us time to harvest the fruit."

Kullu Fruit Growers Association president Rajgir Mahant said, "This time, monsoon is good at most places. Some growers in remote areas which have small link roads face problems. There are many orchards which are not connected by road," he said.