Landslide blocks Chandigarh-Manali Highway

Manali: A huge mountain face was washed onto National Highway 21 near Mandi within seconds on Monday morning bringing traffic to a halt. While commuters had a narrow escape, landslide is still continuing on the Chandigarh-Manali road with the mountain showing many cracks.
The incident occurred near Dabada between Aut and Hanogi temple around 8am. According to eyewitnesses, some earth started to slide on to the road first and then some rocks began to fall.Fearing a mishap, people stopped their vehicles at a certain distance.
"Around 50 people gathered close to the site to see what was happening. We thought some loose stones were falling down, but we were wrong. It was the beginning of a massive landslide. We saw a huge crack in the mountain face and that was becoming wider. Next moment, hundreds of tonnes of debris was washed onto the road, covering half of Beas river," said Rakesh Sharma, who was travelling to Shimla from Manali.
Ghanshyan Thakur, a taxi driver, said, "Some people were trying to walk across that point when suddenly a huge chunk of mountain collapsed with a thud, raising a dust cloud. In a few seconds, everyone could be seen running for life."
Sharma said that though some people disappeared in the dense dust cloud, all of them came out safely.
According to sources, the area where the landslide occurred is notorious for shooting stones coming down upon the highway. Last year too, a landslide had occurred at this place and blocked the highway for several hours.
Public works department (PWD) has installed a signage that warns about falling rocks.
PWD (national highways) executive engineer K R Guleria said the landslide occurred in dry conditions and has entirely blocked the highway.