Manali Nightmare: 8-km Jam, Hotels 100% Occupied, Tourists Stranded On Road

The roads leading to Himachal's tourist hotspot of Manali in Kullu district are crammed with vehicles, stuck in massive traffic jams for hours. On one stretch, between Kothi and Manali, the jam stretched for 8 km.

The situation has been further compounded by the long weekend and snowfall - the season's first after nearly a three-month drought.

Hotel occupancy is at 100% in Manali; due to the extreme rush, people are now moving to Kullu.

Of the 685 roads blocked across the state, the highest number-292-were in the tribal district of Lahaul and Spiti. Additionally, 132 roads were blocked in Chamba, 126 in Mandi, 79 in Kullu, 29 in Sirmour, 20 in Kinnaur, four in Kangra, two in Una, and one in Solan.

The traffic jam, which began on Friday evening, has not cleared even after 24 hours, leaving thousands of tourists stranded in their vehicles and bringing traffic to a complete standstill, said reports.

This is insane stupidity. Huge rush of people on long weekend to manali hearing snow news, resulting in complete mess on roads, people spent entire night in their vehicles in snow freezing temperatures.
Snow you can see anytime in life dont risk ur life for it. Choose wisely pic.twitter.com/FAPYW3r8Dx

— Dr. Vineet Kumar (@vineet_mausam) January 24, 2026

The Himachal Pradesh government has issued a statewide advisory in view of an active western disturbance likely to cause heavy snowfall and rainfall across the state between January 26 and 28, officials said on Saturday.

Pictures from the scene showed vehicles covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Traffic movement beyond Dhalli, 10 km from Shimla, was suspended as a large stretch of the Hindustan-Tibet Road was under a thick blanket of snow. 

The entire Kinnaur district and towns in Shimla district, such as Narkanda, Jubbal, Kotkhai, Kumarsain, Kharapathar, Rohru and Chopal are cut off due to heavy snow, a government official said.

The MeT Office said a Western disturbance -- a storm system originating from the Mediterranean-Caspian Sea region and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region -- would remain active till Sunday, bringing in more rain and snow. 

A yellow warning for dense fog and cold wave conditions has been issued for Kangra, Mandi, Solan, Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Sirmour for tomorrow.