Tourists from Delhi visiting Manali on Republic Day got stuck in long traffic jams due to heavy snowfall. Some people had to stay in their cars for up to 40 hours. Their problems increased due to lack of food and arbitrary prices charged by hotels.
With the weekend being the Republic Day holiday, the journey became a big problem for the people of Delhi who had gone to Manali for holidays and to enjoy the snowfall. Stuck in a kilometer-long traffic jam, a group of youth had to spend nearly 40 hours in their car. Delhi resident Bharat Sharma and his three friends told HT.com their experience of being stuck in the car for almost two days. While returning from Solang Valley on January 23, they got stuck in a huge traffic jam just two kilometers before Manali.
The group spent two days in Solang Valley, located about 14 kilometers above Manali. On 23 January he decided to return to Delhi. But, to cover the distance which should have taken only an hour, he had to wait for a day and a night in his car. When Sharma and his friends Vinay Chaudhary, Vijay Rohilla and Rohit Naithani left Solang Valley on the morning of January 23, light snowfall had already started. They managed to survive for a few hours with the little food they had, but later there was no way to eat or drink.
Being stranded on the road, he found it difficult to meet even his basic needs. Taking advantage of this crowd and the helplessness of the people, hotels in Manali suddenly increased the fares. At many places, Rs 15,000 to Rs 17,000 were charged for one night. Bharat alleged that the hotel owners did not even allow the stranded tourists to use the toilet.
It is believed that due to snowfall along with increasing crowd of tourists and non-compliance of traffic rules, the situation on the roads of Manali became worse. Traffic came to a complete standstill due to vehicles driving without any rules on the narrow mountain roads. Such videos are also going viral on social media, in which many people are leaving their vehicles on the road and walking for kilometers in the snow. Tourists also complained that they did not get much help from the police and officers advised them to leave their cars and go to hotels.