Almora, Dec 13 (ANI): Vehicular movement on a national highway in Uttarakhand has been disrupted due to continuous landslides caused by heavy rainfall.
The National Highway 87 has been blocked due to heavy chunks of boulders on the road.
Locals have started complaining that the landslides have added to their commuting woes.
"We are facing a lot of trouble. We have to walk for about 5 to 7 kilometers before we can reach here. And we have to travel 30 to 35 kilometers extra to reach Almora. The cab drivers are charging more from us. We are facing a lot of difficulty and we are able to access essential items with much difficulty," said Manik Joshi, a resident.
This year's rainfall in the region has weakened roads connecting Bhawali and Almora.
"We have very limited means of transport now. We have trouble walking and we have to walk about 10 to 12 kilometers from our homes to reach our destination," said Manju, another resident.
Engineers of the Public Works Department (PWD) have deployed heavy machinery to clear the roads, but have been unsuccessful to do so for the past week.
"For many days now, continuous landslides have made it difficult for us to open the key routes. We had opened half the road but in the last two to three days another landslide has worsened the situation. You can see we are using about four JCB machines (excavators) and yet we are unable to control it," said N C Joshi, Junior Engineer, (PWD), Almora.
Other engineers said that the work would continue despite the risks and they would clear the roads as soon as possible.
Traffic in the area has been diverted which has led to essential commodities not reaching the people in time.
Residents are hoping that the authorities would be able to restore the highway soon. (ANI)
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