Delhi group’s nightmare trip to Manali: 40 hours stuck in car, little food or water

Hundreds of travellers from Delhi NCR flocked to the popular hill station of Manali recently, lured the promise of picturesque snowfall and the Republic Day long weekend. What many had envisioned as a dream holiday, however, quickly turned into a nightmare, as massive traffic jams left tours stranded inside their vehicles — or even on foot — for hours on end.Bharat Sharma, Vinay Chaudhary, Vijay Rohilla, and Rohit Nainthani’s trip to Manali turned into a nightmare. (Photo provided Bharat Sharma)One such person who spent almost two days stuck inside a car en route spoke to HT.com about the ordeal.Delhi man’s ordeal in ManaliBharat Sharma, 37, planned a road trip to Himachal Pradesh with three other friends last week. The group spent two days in Solang Valley, located roughly 14km above Manali. On January 23, they decided to start their return journey to Delhi.When Sharma and his friends — Vinay Chaudhary, Vijay Rohilla, and Rohit Nainthani — left Solang Valley in the early hours of January 23, it was already snowing lightly.“We decided to spend the day in Manali, thinking the snowfall would be lighter there,” Sharma told HT.com. “We covered the dance between Solang Valley and Manali in less than an hour. But trouble began when we reached Manali.”Sharma said that the group, travelling in their own car, met a massive traffic jam around 2km before Manali Mall Road.40 hours stuck inside a carBharat Sharma and his group of friends reached Manali around 2pm on January 23. From thereon, their dream trip became a nightmare.The traffic jam on the outskirts of Manali was so bad that they were stranded for 24 hours before the jam cleared. “The car was barely moving. It crawled maybe 10 metres or 20 metres at a time,” Sharma, a government employee, said. “We moved maybe 10 metres in an hour, the situation was so bad.”It was only around 2pm the following day, January 24, that the traffic cleared enough for them to move. this time, they had spent 24 hours inside their car just near Manali, with little food or water.“Finally when snow was removed from the roads the next day, we were able to leave,” said Sharma. the time they finally managed to return to Delhi, the group had spent 40 hours inside their car. (Also read: Manali snowfall chaos: Tours abandon cars, walk for hours with luggage in hand)No food, no washroom, no hotelsStranded near Manali, Sharma and his friends experienced an “extremely bad time”.“We ate whatever little food we had. There was no access to toilets, there were no public washrooms” Bharat Sharma told HT.com.He further alleged that authorities offered little help to stranded tours — neither in the way of clearing traffic, nor providing essentials. He said that when they dialled the police for help, they were told to abandon their car and try getting a hotel in Manali.The hotels in Manali, he said, hiked up their prices massively. “Hotels were quoting prices like ₹15,000 per night or ₹17,000 per night. It was not possible for us to get a hotel,” he said.He also claimed that hotels even refused to let stranded tours use their washrooms.What caused the massive jam?Sharma and his friends were among hundreds of other tours who spent hours stranded inside their vehicles in Manali. Videos shared online show some tours abandoning their vehicles to reach Manali on foot, often slipping on the icy roads while walking with suitcases in hand.Sharma said that tours failed to follow lane discipline, compounding the traffic problem.Lane discipline is essential in hilly areas because roads are extremely narrow, often allowing space for only one vehicle in each direction. When vehicles going uphill or downhill fail to stick to their own lanes, it can lead to dangerous stand-offs, collisions or traffic gridlocks of the kind that happened in Manali.