Himachal Pradesh: All 42 IIT Roorkee students safe in Lahaul village

SHIMLA: All 42 stranded students of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee who were missing after crossing Hampta Pass in Manali on September 19 for Chhatru are safe and camped at Sissu village of Lahaul-Spiti district. On the opening of the road to Rohtang tunnel, they will be transported to Manali any moment.
Himachal Pradesh Agriculture and Tribal Development Minister Dr Ram Lal Markanda, who is overseeing rescue arrangements in Lahaul-Spiti by camping at district headquarter Keylong, said that all IIT Roorkee students were at Sissu village.“We have pressed machinery to open the road up to tunnel to send people out of valley through tunnel,” he added.
There was no whereabouts of the students who were trekking from Hampta to Chhatru and were last seen on September 19 by some residents of Manali. After reaching Chhatru, they reached Sissu in three vehicles and remained there after heavy snowfall blocked all roads in district and closed the Rohtang Pass for vehicular traffic.
Earlier there was no information about them and the district administration too came to know about this on Monday night only.
At present, there is no road connectivity beyond Manali as Rohtang Pass and entire Lahaul-Spiti district is covered under snow. Chhatru lies between Rohtang Pass and Kunzum Pass along Gramphu-Kaza road and snow has made the area inaccessible besides no telephone connectivity is available in the district at the moment.
These students from Roorkee were lucky to reach Sissu village before closure of Grapmhu road otherwise they could have landed in trouble.
Lahaul-Spiti administration has yet to establish contact with nine researchers from Kolkata who had gone to study the Gangsten Glacier right above Keylong town of the district while five students of IIT Mandi are also missing in Chandertal area located right above Chhatru towards Kunzum pass.