Shimla: Braving an extremely cold wave at minus 15 to minus 20 degrees temperature 17 tourists in Lahaul Spiti district are stranded due to extreme cold, with six Italians at Kee Monestry and the rest in three homestay units.
Superintendent of Police Mayanka Chaudhary visited various vulnerable, heavy snow-affected areas on Tuesday to assess the possibility of more avalanches in the district.
He said that 17 tourists are stranded in Kazakhstan, including six foreigners. Information was received from a shop in the Spiti subdivision on Monday.
Among the tourists who are staying at the Snow Flax homestay in Kaza are Amit, Vikas Anil Tushir, Naveen Rana, Manish, Deepak Malik, and Rehnat.
Dhunkar Home Stay, Jatin Dhare, Pratit Pingle, Vijay Jawwalker, and Soulful Spiti Home Stay Shubhra Mittal.
At Kee Monestry, Italian nationals Andrea Marzzoleni, Marco Montanar, Nicolo Grimaudo, Susanna Molteni, Veronica Acoia, and Tiziana Landoni are staying.
A message of well-being was sent through V-Sat to their friends.
The snowbound tourist's family was contacted to discuss their well-being, and mobile connectivity was impacted by heavy snowfall in the subdivision.
Beside this, other tourists may be at Kibber, Chhicham, Kangcga, and Tabo. Since there is no road and mobile connectivity at these places, with improvements in weather conditions, communication would be made functional.
The administration said that the border road organisation has deployed JCB and a snowcutter to open the road and deploy the workforce to repair mobile connectivity in the snowbound area.
Due to a 60-hour-long snow blizzard and heavy snowfall, communication services and information are being conveyed through a wireless satellite phone and walkie-talkie.
Superintendent of Police Lahaul Spiti Mayank Choudhary could be contacted at the mobile number 95821-89342.
As per inputs received from BRO, a machine is deputed by BRO for the restoration of the road from Sumdo to Lari, a second machine is deputed by BRO for the restoration of the road from Lari towards Kaza, and the machine that was deputed by BRO for the restoration of the road from Kaza towards Tabo has not done road restoration today due to mechanical failure.
The situation remains peaceful, despite light and communication networks are not yet available.
