A landslide occurred in the Markundi Valley of Sonbhadra

Sonbhadra 24 august:-(desk) A landslide occurred in the Markundi Valley of Sonbhadra, causing the Varanasi-Shaktinagar State Highway to be closed. Traffic was restored after several hours following the incident.

Image credit:-Bhaskar

A sudden landslide occurred in the Markundi Valley of Sonbhadra on Saturday morning, completely blocking the Varanasi-Shaktinagar State Highway. A portion of the mountain collapsed, causing debris to spill onto the state highway, resulting in a complete traffic jam on this major route after 5 am.

Following the incident, vehicles were able to move through the old routes, but the new highway remained completely blocked.

The landslide in the Markundi Valley of the Chopan police station area was caused by continuous heavy rainfall. A section of the Markundi mountain, which lies between the Chopan and Robertsganj route of the Varanasi-Shaktinagar Highway, collapsed, leading to long queues of vehicles on the highway

Upon receiving information about the incident, employees of ACP Tollways Private Limited arrived at the scene with JCB machines and began efforts to remove the debris. After several hours of hard work with the help of three JCB machines, the debris was cleared from the highway, and traffic was restored.

Traffic was diverted to old routes after the Varanasi-Shaktinagar State Highway, which passes through the Markundi mountain, was blocked. Due to heavy rainfall, the route from Chopan to Robertsganj was obstructed, leading to a traffic jam. The police from Chopan and Robertsganj arrived at the scene and facilitated the movement of vehicles through the old routes to clear the congestion.

The toll plaza company also worked swiftly and, after several hours of effort, fully reopened the route. Following this incident, local authorities have issued directives to increase vigilance in the Markundi Valley area to prevent such occurrences in the future.