IMD predicts heavy rainfall, issues orange alert for 9 districts in HP

The India Meteorological Department has issued an orange alert for heavy rainfall in the nine Himachal Pradesh districts including Shimla, Solan and Mandi.

"We have issued orange alerts for the Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Mandi, Bilaspur, Kangra, Chamba, Hamirpur and Una districts during the next three days. The rain will continue in the near future. If we see the records of the past 100 years, this year will be the highest rainfall year as it has broken all old records so far in the state," said Surender Paul, head of IMD (Shimla), on Wednesday.

"There has been light rainfall during the past 24 hours in the state. There is a probability of landslides and fog in the region. The monsoon will continue till September. Monsoon so far there has been 530 mm of rainfall which is very high. We have received 734 mm of rain during the monsoon. We have received 70% prescription of the total rainfall. We have two more months of the monsoon season. We have issued an advisory and have also issued an orange alert," Paul further added.

The Revenue Minister of the state government, Jagat Singh Negi said that the alert is continued and all are prepared in the field.

"The heavy rain has destroyed roads, drinking and irrigation water supply schemes and there has been a loss of over 6000 Crore rupees. 188 people have lost their lives, 194 people are injured and a total of 652 houses have been damaged with nearly 6500 houses damaged partially," Negi said.

"The cloudbursts and flashfloods are continued in the state. Amid alert we are trying to get prepared," he added.

As per the state disaster management authority, 176 people have died in the state due to various reasons since the onset of the monsoon on June 24.