Over 500 tourists including IIT Roorkee students, who were stuck up in sudden heavy snow in the tribal Lahaul Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh over last two days, were on Tuesday shifted to safer locations in the area. They would soon be moved out of Lahaul, said an official release here.

The release said as many as 200 people were stranded at Koksar in Lahaul Spiti while around 300 were stuck up in Baralacha due to snow, who were provided with food and medicines by state government.

All the students of IIT Roorkee were safe and had been evacuated to Army Base Camp at Sissu.

Even as it was sunny day on Tuesday, incessant rains lashed most parts of Himachal over the last three days, with sudden snowfall in Lahaul Spiti.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur visited Kullu to take first hand information on the spot about the losses, rehabilitation and rescue operations. He reviewed the steps undertaken after the damage by incessant and heavy rains in the state, particularly Kullu district, over the last three days.

Thakur also took aerial survey of the Lahaul valley upto Chandertal to assess the damages caused due to untimely snow.

Thakur said that the state has suffered a loss of over Rs 1,230 crore in Monsoons, excluding the recent losses due to heavy rains in the state for the last four days.

“The government has urged the Union Government to provide liberal assistance to the state government and Rs 200 crore as immediate relief for undertaking relief, restoration and rehabilitation works,” he said.

He said that the government so far has released Rs 230 crore for rehabilitation works.

In addition to this, Rs 30 crore has been released to Kullu district for undertaking maintenance of roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

The Chief Minister said that he had a word with the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman regarding these natural calamities.

He said that on his request three helicopters of Indian Air Force has been provided by the Union government for evacuating the tourists and all those stranded in Lahaul valley due to untimely and unpredicted heavy snowfall.

Union government has assured all possible help and if required more choppers would be made available for the rescue of stranded people.

Thakur said the road from Kullu to Manali which has been damaged badly would be restored within a week.

Since the water supply in Manali has been severely damaged and it would be restored within three days.

As many as 378 transformers have been damaged in the district and power supply to about 40 percent area has been affected and the same would be restored within a week.

The CM said the government was ensuring that all the affected families were provided all possible help so that they do not face any inconvenience.

Kullu district administration, meanwhile, provided blankets, tents and other required material to the migrant workers who lost their shelter due to flash floods.