Char Dham Yatra still disrupted by weather

Dehradun: The annual pilgrimage of the Char Dhaam in Uttarakhand continued to be disrupted for the third day on Monday as many roads leading to the shrines remained blocked by landslides, an official said.

While rains have decreased in the region, work on learning the roadblocks was underway and at many places normal vehicular traffic was yet to be restored.

The Nandprayag-Chamoli road on the Badrinath highway, where a large number of boulders and rocks had fallen after the heavy rains last week, is yet to be cleared. Some vehicles were routed through an alternative road between Badrinath and Rudraprayag on Sunday evening.

The Kedarnath highway has been blocked between Soneprayag and Gaurikund and efforts are underway to clear it by Monday afternoon, an official informed IANS.

The Yamunotri and Gangotri highways, however, are open for traffic.

Meanwhile, rescue and relief operations in Chamoli and Pithoragarh districts, where a cloud burst had flattened and washed away some villages, are underway and two more bodies have been recovered from the debris, taking the toll to 16.

Thirty nine people from both these places had gone missing in the rains that followed the cloud burst. Five persons are reported to be undergoing treatment at local medical facilities. 

A senior official monitoring rescue and relief operations from the state capital said that of the 284 roads that had been closed following heavy rains last week, 110 have been opened for traffic.