SHIMLA, September 3 — Torrential rain has battered Himachal Pradesh, prompting the Meteorological Department to issue a red alert for Solan and Sirmaur districts on Tuesday, warning of extremely heavy downpour in isolated areas. An orange alert is in effect for Shimla, Mandi, Una, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Kangra, Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti, while a yellow alert has been issued for Kinnaur and Chamba districts.
The unrelenting showers have swelled the Sutlej river, with water levels rising dangerously close to the Thali bridge in Sunni, Shimla district. Parts of Kalighat and ITI areas in Sunni are already inundated. Authorities shifted two families to safer ground as a precautionary measure.
The impact on road connectivity has been severe. According to the State Emergency Operation Centre, as many as 1,161 roads, including seven National Highways, are blocked across Himachal. These include 283 roads, among them NH-3, in Mandi; 234 in Shimla; 205, including NH-305, in Kullu; 138, including NH-707, in Sirmaur; 92 in Solan; 60 in Kangra; 49, including NH-505, in Lahaul-Spiti; 39, including NH-21 and NH-205, in Bilaspur; 37 in Una; 13, including NH-05, in Kinnaur; and 12 in Hamirpur district.
Electricity supply has also taken a hit, with 2,477 distribution transformers damaged statewide. Kullu reported the highest number of outages with 951 transformers down, followed by Solan (529), Sirmaur (273), Mandi (266), Shimla (258), Lahaul-Spiti (87), Hamirpur (59), Kinnaur (32), Una (20) and Kangra (2).
Rainfall data over the past 24 hours reflects the scale of the deluge. Naina Devi in Bilaspur received the highest at 136 mm. Other significant figures include Pacchadi in Sirmaur with 77 mm, Chamba 66 mm, Bilaspur 60.4 mm, Manali 57 mm, Palampur 52.6 mm, Nahan 43.2 mm, Keylong 34 mm, Dharamshala 32.8 mm, Shimla 30.8 mm, Bhuntar 30.4 mm, Kufri 29 mm, Kangra 20.7 mm, Mandi 19.8 mm, Kalpa 14.2 mm and Sundernagar 12.7 mm.
Officials warned that with slopes saturated from persistent rain, the risk of further landslides and flooding remains high across the hill state.
