Himachal Pradesh Hit by Heavy Rains: 179 Roads Blocked as IMD Sounds Orange Alert for Today

Himachal Pradesh continued to reel under heavy monsoon rain on Tuesday, with a flash flood in Chamba town leaving widespread damage to roads, power infrastructure and water supply across the state.

The Mohalla Sultanpur area of Chamba took the worst hit, where a seasonal nullah swollen by intense rainfall turned into a flash flood. The surge damaged 28 houses in all, including two built with permanent construction, along with a shop and a government building, and swept away or badly damaged over three dozen vehicles that had been parked near the stream.

Chamba Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Repaswal said that an alert had gone out ahead of time, but the scale of the surge still caught officials off guard, causing extensive damage, the Indian Express reported. Cleanup crews were working through debris, rocks and silt while authorities tallied the losses, he said, noting that vehicles left in the open near the nullah bore the brunt of the flooding.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu reviewed the situation on Tuesday and instructed the district administration to move quickly on relief for affected families, per the report. He also cautioned residents about more heavy rain ahead, asking them to keep away from rivers, nullahs and seasonal khuds given the danger posed by sudden water surges.

Roads, Power And Water Take A Hit Statewide

Data from the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) showed 179 roads still blocked across Himachal by Tuesday evening, down from 230 that morning. Mandi bore the heaviest toll with 58 blocked roads, ahead of Kullu (42) and Chamba (30).

Water supply in Shimla could also see disruption in the coming days after a transformer failure at Stage-2 of the Sutlej Water Supply Project, compounded by silt and flooding at other sources, the Shimla Jal Prabandhan Nigam Limited said.

More Rain On The Way, IMD Warns

The Meteorological Department has flagged more wet weather ahead, issuing an orange alert for Sirmaur district for July 29 over expected heavy to very heavy rain, according to the Indian Express report. Bilaspur, Kangra and Mandi are under a yellow alert for the same day.

The warnings escalate on July 30, with Bilaspur, Chamba, Kangra and Sirmaur moving to orange and the remaining districts, Una, Hamirpur, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla and Solan, under yellow.

Speaking separately, IMD Himachal Pradesh senior scientist Sandeep Kumar Sharma said the state's monsoon spell would likely stay active until August 3, per ANI, with rain expected statewide through August 1 before activity shifts toward the plains and mid-hill belt over August 2-3.

He flagged July 29 and 30 as the days most likely to see intense spells, while districts other than Chamba, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi and Shimla would likely see only isolated pockets of heavy rain on July 31 and August 1, prompting yellow alerts for those two days.

Sharma added that no flash flood warning was currently in force, and that the state's seasonal rainfall so far was running just 6% below normal, still within the "normal" range.

Dam Release Adds To Flood Risk

A public advisory was also issued after the 800 MW Parbati Hydroelectric Project's Stage-II began discharging extra water from the Pulga Dam, the Indian Express reported.

The release added roughly 27 cumecs through the radial gates, pushing the Parbati river's total discharge to around 109 cumecs. Authorities warned that further releases were possible if inflows rise, and asked residents, tourists and workers to steer clear of riverbanks; sirens and public announcements have been deployed in vulnerable spots as a precaution.

The state's monsoon death toll from landslides and flash floods has climbed to 15 since the season began on June 30.