Shimla and Manali bear the brunt of overcrowding again due to heavy tourist inflow

With mercury levels rising and offering no respite to people in cities, Shimla and Manali seem to bear the brunt of it. Scorching heat in the plains is forcing people to head toward the hills, and beat the heat for some time.

With tourists making a beeline and marching toward hill stations, roads leading to Manali and Shimla have been left totally choked. In fact, recently long traffic jams left people hassled, when they found themselves stuck on the roads leading to Shimla from Kufri and Shoghi from Dhalli tunnel.
As per latest reports, everyday at least 4500 tourist vehicles are entering Manali, whereas 5000 vehicles are entering Shimla on an average. This number further goes up during weekends, which aggravates the problem for both the tourist spots due to lack of proper parking facilities.

Referring to this development, Shimla Deputy Superintendent of police said that as Shimla does not have enough parking spaces, visitors park their vehicles on roadsides, as the tourists have no other option, which is leading to traffic jams. The official added that as many as 120 cops have been deployed in the region to manage traffic. Further, around 95 per cent hotels in Shimla and 90 per cent in Manali have been booked in full capacity. An official in the know-how stated that tourists mainly from three neighbouring cities, such as Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab are thronging the hill stations during the weekend, further worsening the situation.

If the said situation is not contained now, it might aggravate leading to a similar crisis that was faced last year during the same time, Shima faced water crisis and hotels had to put up notices that read, ‘We are in a water crisis, don’t come to Shimla’.