A visitor came up with a brilliant idea to avoid traffic during the holiday rush: driving across a river instead of using the roads.
Chandigarh: A tourist discovered a clever way to avoid the traffic by taking a detour across a river instead of using the state’s roads. During the Christmas and New Year celebrations, many tourists have begun to swarm Himachal Pradesh’s hill stations, causing severe traffic congestion on the state’s roads.
The tourist was captured on camera driving a Mahindra Thar SUV through the Chandra river in Lahaul Valley; luckily, there was not much water in the river, or else the drive might have been fatal. The video has gone viral on social media and received backlash from the locals.
When the visitor crashed his car into the river last evening, there was a severe traffic bottleneck in several locations along the Lahaul-Manali highway.
Manali, a popular tourist destination in the Kullu district, is teeming with visitors who come to celebrate Christmas and see the snow in Lahaul Valley.
In the last three days, about 55,000 vehicles have passed through the Atal tunnel in Rohtang, which connects Kullu, Lahaul, and Spiti, according to officials. A number of videos displaying a lengthy line of cars on the roadways have appeared on social media.
Tourists can have a significant impact on the region’s fragile environment, which is vulnerable to natural disasters, even though they are good for the hospitality industry and the administration finds it difficult to manage.
The Director General of Police in Shimla, Sanjay Kundu, urged the visitors to prioritize safe travel habits and follow traffic laws.
More than a lakh cars are anticipated to visit Shimla this week for the New Year’s festivities, according to officials.
Approximately 60,000 cars are left parked on city roadsides, according to police data. During the week, about 12,000 cars arrive in Shimla on average, while on weekends, during the busiest travel season, over 26,000 cars arrive.
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the chief minister, noted that the state is “managing the situation well” in the meantime.