Rohtang pass to be opened for vehicular traffic by May

Shimla: The Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft), known as gateway to tribal Lahaul and Pangi valleys of Himachal Pradesh, will be opened for vehicular traffic by the first week of May after nearly four months. Snow clearing work on the pass is over and normal vehicular traffic to tribal valleys, which were cut off by road due to snowfall from December last year, will be resumed by first week of May, Commander of the 38 Task Force of the General Reserve Engineering Force(GREF), Col Yogesh Nair said.

The maintenance of Manali-Leh highway, which has strategic importance from defence point of view, has been entrusted with the GREF, a wing of the Border Roads Organisation. Some patches of the road were covered under 25 to 30 feet of snow.

Snow has been removed, but it will take some more days to make it traffic worthy, GREF officials said adding, till restoration of normal traffic on the 115 km stretch between Manali and Keylong, limited public transport buses will be allowed in the next few days, officials said.