Tribal snowbound areas to be opened for traffic soon:officials

The tribal snowbound areas of Lahaul and Spiti and Pangi, which were cut off from rest of the state due to heavy snowfall during the winters for last more than four months, would be opened for vehicular traffic as snow clearance operations are in full swing, officials said.
The main roads of the district, including Tandi-Keylong-Darcha, Samdo-Kaza-Gramphu and Koksar-Rohtang, were closed for traffic due to the heavy snowfall.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), entrusted with maintenance of these border roads, is holding meetings with district administration on a regular basis, an official spokesman today, adding the Ground Reserve Engineering Force(GREF) was conducting the snow clearing operations.

He said as per the BRO, Manali-Leh road had been restored from Manali to Gulaba and from Sisu to Jispa and Darcha.
The 1-km road length between Tandi and Dalang, which was damaged due to recent spell of snow, has been restored. Likewise, the snow has been removed from Udaipur to Tindi and the road has been reopened for traffic, the spokesman said.
Adequate manpower and machinery has been made available at Manali, Koksar, Tandi, Udaipur and Stingri stations to restore the roads, he said.
The Rohtang Pass would be opened for traffic by the end of this month, subject to weather conditions, a spokesman of BRO said.

He said the restoration work on the roads under Public Works Department was also going on a war-footing and the department had reported that despite of six-feet snow on the roads, 50 per cent roads have been cleared.