Despite warning, tourists head for Solang

Tribune News Service

Manali, January 13

Despite the district administration warning, tourists coming to Kullu-Manali were thronging towards the Solang valley, putting their lives to risk.

The district administration has deployed police personnel near Nehru Kund to stop tourists’ vehicles plying towards the Solang valley because of public safety concern but many tourists manage to skip the authority.

The entire area was under snow, however the Border Roads Organisation had opened the road up to the Solang valley for vehicular traffic but due to freezing cold there was frost deposited on the road and vehicles could skid.

The slack attitude of the authorities may put tourists’ lives in jeopardy. Tourists were not following the instructions of the district administration and they were engaging local taxi operators to visit snow point up to the Solang valley.

When contacted, Sub Divisional Magistrate, Manali, HR Bairwa said, “We were not allowing tourist vehicles to go beyond Nehru Kund because of public safety concern. There was frost deposited on the road at many places towards the Solang valley.”

“There is prediction of snowfall in the coming days and we will advise tourists to refrain from going to Solang or Gulaba,” he said.

A few days ago around 300 vehicles were stranded in the area because of the sudden snowfall between Solang and Manali and hundreds of tourists were forced to spend the night in vehicles and the district administration had to launch a rescue operation in the area.

The apathetic attitude of the authorities concerned may prove fatal for tourists as they were not well aware of terrain.