Since the onset of monsoon on June 20 to date, rain-related incidents have claimed 23 lives in the state, according to the state emergency operation centre.
The meteorological centre in Shimla issued a 'red' alert on Sunday for very heavy downpour in 10 districts of Himachal Pradesh, while services on the Shimla-Kalka rail line were suspended for hours till the debris and trees fallen on the tracks following overnight rains were removed.
The labourers, who are said to be of Nepali origin, were engaged in the construction of a hotel.
Flash floods triggered by a cloudburst in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, resulted in casualties and widespread damage, prompting rescue operations and relief efforts.
A case of negligence has been registered against authorities of the Larji Hydropower project in Manali even as rescuers on Wednesday negotiated through huge boulders and high level of silt to trace 19 engineering students and a tour guide who were washed away in the turbulent waters of the Beas River.
Rescuers on Friday found the body of an engineering student who was among the 25 youth who were swept away in gushing waters of the Beas river on June 8 and with this the bodies of 13 students have been recovered so far.
Three more bodies were recovered from Beas river on Thursday twelve days after 25 persons, including 24 students from a Hyderabad engineering college, were swept away in the river.
Rescue teams on Wednesday fished out the body of a student from the Beas River and intensified the hunt for 19 others missing even as a case of negligence has been registered against authorities of the Larji Hydropower project in connection with the incident.
An unmanned aerial vehicle was pressed into service on Friday to trace 17 missing engineering students from Hyderabad but without any success and rescuers will now deploy for the first time a multibeam echsounder in Beas river whose level will be also lowered to minimum.
A team of six trekkers from New Delhi and Shimla is missing in Kinnaur district, officials said. A rescue operation will be launched.
Rescuers on Monday fished out bodies of five Hyderabad-based engineering students, who were washed away in the swirling waters of Beas River along with 20 classmates whose fate is not known as Chief minister Virbhadra Singh ordered a magisterial inquiry and suspension of Resident Engineer of Larji hydropower project.
Villages are flooded, roads have washed away and railway tracks have submerged under the rising waters.
Heavy rains continued to lash various parts of Himachal Pradesh, disrupting normal life in lower and mid hills while most of the rivers are in spate due to sudden rise in water level due to rains in catchments areas.
'As the convoy crawled towards Manali, the night got darker with no street lights to guide us. The road ahead too got narrower and rocky.'
All educational institutions in Shimla and Kullu districts will remain closed on Monday as heavy to extremely heavy rains continue to lash the state, district officials said.
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