The authorities on Tuesday afternoon finally managed to clear the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway number 58 at lambagad where it had been blocked to traffic for about five days by debris. Though this stretch of the blocked road was made passable, the situation has remained fluid with debris intermittently blocking the road here and at some other sites.
The authorities were able to facilitate departure of about 70 small and big vehicles from Badrinath whereas vehicles en route to Badrinath were not allowed forward and made to halt in view of the impediment and risk posed by mountain streams flooding across various stretches of the road.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway had been blocked to traffic for the past five days by debris at the lambagad slide zone and other sites. The blockage prevented vehicles from crossing the slide zone to and from Badrinath through this national highway.
Intermittent spells of rainfall in the past few days exacerbated the challenge of clearing the road to traffic. After much toil, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel were able to finally clear the blockage to enable vehicular traffic movement here. However, with rainfall continuing unabated in the region on Tuesday, the swollen mountain streams gushing across stretches of the road pose a problem in facilitation of smooth flow of vehicular traffic.
The BRO commander R Subhramaniam provided this information to The Pioneer while talking to this correspondent on the phone. It should be noted here that amidst spells of rainfall in the region, this and some other roads are prone to be closed to traffic now and then but the heavy debris at the lambagad slide zone have made the task of clearing the road properly for enabling smooth traffic flow more difficult. Tackling such challenges, the BRO did manage to open the blockage for traffic at lambagad after a period of five days. Additionally, the heavy rainfall has also caused blockage of this road near Balduda for some hours after which the authorities managed to clear a part of the area.