Dehradun: A massive landslide struck the strategic Niti-Malari national highway in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday afternoon, briefly disrupting traffic, cutting off connectivity to over a two dozen villages in the Niti valley and affecting the supply of essential goods to border villages in the region, officials said.The incident occurred during ongoing road-widening work for double-laning of the highway. Officials said a large section of rock suddenly collapsed, sending huge quantities of debris and boulders crashing onto the road.Teams from the Border Roads Organization (BRO) and the district administration launched restoration work, though continuous rockfall from the unstable hillside initially hampered operations to clear the debris.Videos captured by locals and widely circulated online showed thick clouds of dust engulfing the area as the mountainside gave away, despite there being no rainfall at the time — a phenomenon more commonly associated with the monsoon season in the Himalayan region.“Road widening work is underway on the Niti-Malari road. A section of the hill suddenly collapsed around 1 pm. BRO teams immediately deployed machinery to clear the debris and traffic movement was restored by evening,” said Chamoli disaster management officer Nand Kishore Joshi, adding that such landslides are common in the district’s high-altitude areas.The Niti-Malari road is strategically important as it provides crucial connectivity to remote frontier villages near the India-China border and serves as a key route for the movement of civilians, essential supplies and security forces in the border region.
