A day after the lake on Tibet’s Pareechu burst, swelling the Sutlej, the Himachal government today pegged its loss of property and infrastructure at Rs 700 crore. Besides damage to roads, Civil Supplies Minister Singhi Ram, who was here to assess the damage, said that the Sutlej had also swept away 16 bridges, big and small.The security forces, meanwhile, have fished out the bodies of six Chinese nationals near Sumdoh, six km from the international border in Kinnaur. Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Mandeep Garg said 14 tourists, including six foreigners, were airlifted from Pooh and Kalpa. The rest would be airlifted tomorrow.DC Garg said of the total 18 bridges in Kinnaur, 13 have been rendered unsafe. A bridge at Karchham Wangtoo, which was washed away during the 2000 flash-floods, met the same fate yesterday, he said.Meanwhile, the Sutlej—15 metres above normal at Rampur yesterday— dipped to 10 metres but the red alert along the banks of the river remained in place. The 1500-MW Nathpa-Jhakri hydro power project downstream of Sutlej, which was closed on Saturday due to heavy silting, remained shut for the third day today as the silt content remained as high as 30,000 ppm. (particle per million) against the maximum permissible limit of 5000, project General Manager J K Sharma said. He said the they would resume generation once the silt content touched the 5,000 PPM mark.
