While India sent missions to space, built highways across mountains and connected its cities with expressways, a small village in Himachal Pradesh waited 78 years for something far more basic: a road. Tuman village, located in the Chawasi area of Mandi district, received its first motorable road on Monday.
The 2.7-kilometre road, built from Shakeld to Tuman by the Public Works Department, is a significant thing for the region, which had remained cut off from basic transport facilities for decades.
To mark the occasion, a trial run of a Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus was successfully conducted. The bus was flagged off from Shakeld to Tuman by Karsog Sub-Divisional Magistrate Gaurav Mahajan. Villagers welcomed the leaders and officials and accompanied them on the trial bus journey from Shakeld to Tuman and back.
The arrival of the bus in the village was met with celebrations, as residents gathered to welcome it after years of waiting for basic connectivity. Residents marked the occasion by distributing sweets and organising a welcome ceremony in the village. A video from the event shows people clapping, cheering and waiting with garlands in hands to welcome the bus.
They thanked the district administration, the Public Works Department, the Transport Corporation and other departments for completing the road and facilitating the bus service. They also urged authorities to make the service permanent.
The road was formally inaugurated by former Karsog Congress Committee president Prithvi Singh Negi. The chief guest at the event was Mahesh Raj, a former Congress candidate from the constituency and a current office-bearer of the party.
(With inputs from Anup Dhiman)
