Following heavy rain in Chamoli district, the Rishikesh-Badrinath National Highway remained blocked for vehicular traffic near lambagad from the early Wednesday morning to the evening by which time, the authorities had managed to open the road for traffic.
Different parts of the mountainous region including Chamoli experienced heavy rainfall on Wednesday. As a result of heavy rain since pre-dawn hours in the lambagad area, the rainwater swelled into a torrent raging across a part of the highway damaging a stretch of the road about 25 metres in length. The raging rainwater also washed away the embankment at this site. According to sources, the stretch of the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway near lambagad became impassable for vehicular traffic at about 4 am.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel arrived at the site and began clearing the debris from the road using mechanical excavators. The vehicles carrying pilgrims to Badrinath were halted at Joshimath and Pandukeshwar while those plying out of Badrinath in vehicles were advised to remain in the temple township.
According to the district administration, travelers en-route were stopped from proceeding further and halted at comparatively safer locations till the reopening of the road for traffic. The BRO put deployed two mechanical excavators to clear the debris and also deployed a team of labourers to build the embankment. The authorities were finally able to clear the debris enough to enable the resumption of vehicular traffic on the Badrinath national highway at about 5 pm.