E-Paper
Keylong records coldest night of season at -13.2°C
Kukumseri in the district was second coldest at -12. 1°Celsius. Narkanda, a quaint hill station about 65 kilometres from Shimla, shivered at -4°C, whereas Kalpa in Kinnaur saw a low of 3°C.
Night temperatures plunged several notches across Himachal on Monday even as Keylong, the administrative centre of the tribal Lahaul-Spiti district, recorded the coldest night of the season at -13.2°Celsius.
The sky, however, remained clear for the second consecutive day.
Kukumseri in the district was second coldest at -12. 1°Celsius. Narkanda, a quaint hill station about 65 kilometres from Shimla, shivered at -4°C, whereas Kalpa in Kinnaur saw a low of 3°C.
Kufri, in the outskirts of Shimla, recorded a low of -2.6°C while the famous tourist resort of Manali froze at -2°C. Seohbag was another station to record sub-zero temperature at -0.3°C.
The night temperature in Dalhousie, another hill-station was recorded 0.1 degrees while in state capital Shimla it was 1.4°C.
The Met department has forecast a fresh spell of snow and rains on higher reaches on February 17.
India Meteorological department’s Shimla centre director Surender Paul said a feeble western disturbance will hit Himachal on Tuesday but is unlikely to cause snowfall or rain.
181 roads still closed
Meanwhile, 181 roads, including three national highways, were still closed across the state due to the snowfall last week. State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said the maximum, 152, roads were blocked in Lahaul-Spiti district, 12 in Kullu and rest in other districts.
Lahaul-Spiti police said that Atal Tunnel, Rohtang, was open for traffic, however, the traffic movement on Manali-Leh highway is restricted. Only four-wheeler vehicles are allowed till Jispa. Darcha-Shinkula is closed while the state highway connecting Killar of remote Pangi valley of Chamba is open till Udaipur for four-wheelers.
Several remote areas are reeling under darkness as more than 108 electricity transformers required repairing. Ten water supply schemes have also been disrupted, six of them in Lahaul-Spiti and four in Chamba.
