Heavy rains lash Uttarakhand's Pauri, one person swept away in landslide

A man was swept away with the rubble of a landslide that hit his house followed by heavy rains in Pauri district on Wednesday, which has also damaged several bridges here, and has blocked a national highway at over a dozen places.

It has been raining continuously in Kotdwar since Tuesday evening, disrupting normal life in its wake. Water and muck have gushed into homes in Jhula Basti, Gadighat, Kashirampur Talla, Malla, Kodia Camp basti, Aam Parao basti and other areas under Kotdwar municipality, destroying property worth lakhs of rupees, the disaster control room said.

The landslide occurred late on Tuesday night at Choona Maheda village, demolishing the house of Rahmat Ali who was swept away in the rubble. A search operation is underway to trace him, the disaster control room said.

Kotdwar recorded 269 mm of rainfall followed by Yamkeshwar which recorded 89 mm of rainfall, it said. The approach road to a suspension bridge which connects Kotdwar with Ratanpur and Lalpani was washed away by incessant rains, affecting a large population of the area who will have to traverse an additional distance of 7-8 km to reach Ratanpur and Lalpani, it said.

Several other small bridges in the town were also damaged, it said. NH 534 which connects Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh with Kotdwar was blocked at over a dozen places between Kotdwar and Satpuli on Tuesday night leaving nearly a hundred vehicles, including buses, stranded. People had to spend the night in their vehicles.

“We have been trying to reopen the highway for the past twelve hours but continuous rain is hampering our efforts. However, we hope it will be reopened after a couple of hours,” NHAIs Additional Assistant Engineer Arvind Joshi told PTI.

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